Asset. Ally

Ally. Geist.

Cost: 1. XP: 1.

Survivor
Health: –. Sanity: 3.

You get +1 .

Non-direct horror must be assigned to Guiding Spirit before it can be assigned to your investigator card.

Forced - When Guiding Spirit is defeated by horror: Exile it.

Quintin Gleim
Union and Disillusion #236.
Guiding Spirit

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • NB: ArkhamDB now incorporates errata from the Arkham Horror FAQ in its card text, so the ArkhamDB text and the card image above differ, as the ArkhamDB text has been edited to contain this erratum (updated January 2022): Erratum: This card’s Forced ability should read: “When Guiding Spirit is defeated by horror: Exile it.” - FAQ, v.1.6, September 2019
Last updated

Reviews

Wonderful card for certain investigators, namely those with decent investigative power and innate resilience.

Top of the list:

Wendy Adams with her high , and ability.

"Ashcan" Pete with his high and ready made soak from Duke.

Minh Thi Phan with great and high enough to really benefit.

Take note that Guiding Spirit only exiles if defeated, I.E killed. If you play over it's ally slot to discard it (for example: your other copy of Guiding Spirit) or it gets discarded by a mythos card, it will not be exiled. High willpower and secondary soaks (Lieutenant Pawterson and Peter Sylvestre ) will basically make it so that your spirits will never go away.

Tsuruki23 · 2523
It's also non-unique, so you can stack them for a double boost and spread out any horror between them. Minh probably gets the best use out of this card, since she begins with a higher baseline stat and is likely to be doing way more investigating than any of the survivors. — Sassenach · 179
I'm gonna agree that this fits best with Minh. No one else with access to Survivor 1 cards can protect it as well and take advantage of the extra intellect. Pete is a close second. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
Good cathc, ill add Minh — Tsuruki23 · 2523
While I do think it probably achieves its greatest potential in Minh or Wendy, I actually liked this a lot as a backup horror sink for Rita (until I could find Peter). That was a solo run, so the +int was actually quite helpful (in combination with Flashlight, and/or to be able to LWIF on slightly higher shroud locations). — Zinjanthropus · 227
[Tommy Muldoon](/card/06001) loves the Spirit too, as he is pointing him to some treasure. +2 net ressources when the spirit dies, a nice effect when he is around and then he keeps coming back because of Tommies ability. Solid ally. — jcdenton · 10
Tommy cannot shuffle Guiding Spirit back into his deck because it would be exiled — suika · 9392

This is a really great card and obviously the strategy is going to be how to make sure you can protect it so you don't lose the XP investment. Cherished Keepsake is one obvious route as is Charisma plus Peter Sylvestre.

But if you don't want to take Charisma, you could always use another ally or even A Chance Encounter to push Guiding Spirit out just before it is defeated.

kingofyates · 26
Calling in favors comes to mind as a last minute save for this one — Dustgod · 3
Or Charisma plus a second spirit to protect the first. It mostly depends on how much sanity buffer you expect to need, but even if you do lose it, a 1 xp loss isn’t the worst. — Death by Chocolate · 1447