Amulet of guardian spirit
| Type | Jewellery |
|---|---|
| Name | Amulet of guardian spirit |
| Icon | 
|
| An amulet containing a protective spirit which will cause any damage taken to be divided between the wearer's reserves of health and magic. |
Wearing an amulet of guardian spirit grants the spirit shield intrinsic. This links your HP and MP, causing all damage you take to be split proportionally between your HP and MP pools. Spirit shield has no impact on poison or ability costs.
Djinn have no MP, so are unaffected. Vine Stalkers and Demonspawn with the Mana Shield mutation innately have spirit shield, so gain no further benefit from wearing this amulet.
Strategy
This amulet is best suited for those with low HP-to-MP ratio, namely casters and low-HP species like Spriggan and Felid. For them, guardian spirit gives the greatest benefit - preventing one-shot (or two-shot) deaths from, say, Lehudib's Crystal Spear is very helpful.
The main "risk" of guardian spirit is that you can run out of MP. Casters may not have the MP to finish off a monster. More importantly, it can prevent you from using god abilities; Zin's Sanctuary is likely more valuable than 8 HP. At the same time, careful/proactive play can mitigate that risk, and having an extra 30 or so HP is quite valuable.
Ironically, Berserkers and other characters with little use of MP can benefit - it's free HP. If you don't have a better amulet, you might as well use it.
Tips & Tricks
- If you plan on using guardian spirit long-term, note that Spellcasting and Invocations skill increase max MP. Only one skill counts; only the higher of (Spellcasting, Invocations/2) has an effect.
- Remember to re-assess the priority for killing MP-draining monsters (such as ghost moths) while wearing this amulet, as their ability to drain your MP is often rapid and irresistible.
History
- Prior to 0.26, equipping this amulet drained all your MP, as it took only 0.5 turns to wear. Past 0.26, the Deep Dwarf species would still lose MP when putting on this amulet.
- Prior to 0.10, spirit shield would fully consume MP before you started losing health, making it less useful for casters.
