Daedalian Keys are flying keys found throughout Hogwarts itself, which must be chased and put back in their locked cabinets in order to unlock 16 House Tokens, which you will be able to use to unlock your house chest for both a unique, house-themed appearance item (widely considered to be one of the best looking in the game), and the completion of the quest The Daedalian Keys.
What are Daedalian Keys and House Tokens?
Daedalian Keys appear after starting the side quest The Daedalian Keys. They are flying keys that retreat to cabinets. When you approach them near a cabinet, you can smack them into keyholes. Inside each cabinet are House Tokens. One of these is only available get Alohomora in the Caretaker’s Lunar Lament, preventing you from collecting all 16 Tokens or completing The Daedalian Keys until then.
How to Start Collecting Daedalian Keys and House Tokens
The Daedalian Keys will not begin flying around Hogwarts until you speak to Nellie in the Transfiguration Courtyard to begin the quest The Daedalian Keys (How fitting), which will become available to you after you complete Welcome to Hogsmeade. She will tell you about the Daedalian Keys, and mention that she knows one is in the Astronomy Tower.
After you collect its House Token (See Key #1 below), head to your Common Room and insert the token in your House Chest, which will be near the entrance to your Common Room. Finally, return to Nellie to report the results of your findings, and once you finish that conversation, the Daedalian Keys around Hogwarts will be available.
1. Speak to Nellie2. Get the Astronomy Tower House Token (See Below)3. Go to Your Common Room4. Go to Your House Chest5. Insert the House Token6. Return to Nellie
Daedalian Keys Locations
You’ll collect this Daedalian Key and House Token as part of the beginning of The Daedalian Keys side quest. To reach it, you’ll need to climb to near the top of the Astronomy Tower; roughly two flights of stairs up from the Floo Flame. The key will be hovering at the top of these stairs, and will fly away toward the cabinet when you get close.
The cabinet will be just down the stairs, in the actual Astronomy Classroom on the left side.
This key is directly in front of the skeleton of the rhinoceros-like creature in the Defence Against the Dark Arts Tower. To get there, go to the Defence Against the Dark Arts Floo Flame and head down the stairs, where it’ll be right in front of you.
The key will then fly to a cabinet directly upstairs. To get there, you can take any of the nearby staircases (with the closest being those just outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom). The Cabinet will be, essentially, right above the rhino-like skeleton.
On the ground floor of the North Hall (the same level as the History of Magic Class is on), you’ll find the key flying around just in front of a painting of the Fat Friar and a bench.
When you approach it, it will fly up the stairs to the cabinet, which is at the top of the North Hall staircase, just outside the Music Classroom.
Heading downstairs from the North Hall and into the basement, you’ll soon come across a Dragon Statue (and pass by a cabinet on your way there). The Key will be flying around right next to this dragon statue.
It will head to a cabinet back toward the North Hall, up some stairs leading back into the castle proper.
Deeper into the dungeon, past the dragon statue, you’ll soon find another key in a hallway. Approach it to get it to fly toward its cabinet.
The cabinet in question is in the next room, which is where the actual dungeons are. While there are locked doors and frog puzzles in this room, the cabinet in question is on the same level you start in, right next to some barrels, being immediately accessible.
Just outside the Potions Room, between its Floo Flame and the room itself, the key will be flying around at the top of a spiral staircase, next to a precarious tower of cauldrons.
When you approach it, it will fly down the spiral staircase and to the cabinet at the end of a hallway at the bottom of the stairs.
The Entrance Hall can be found either by taking the Floo Flame to the Great Hall, exiting, and continuing forward (rather than going toward the Grand Staircase), or by going to the Viaduct Courtyard and making your way up the stairs and through a set of doors. Once there, the key will be flying around at the top of the stairs.
When you approach it, it will fly down to a cabinet near the bottom of the stairs, in the east part of the room.
The Key in the Great Hall is flying around near the fireplace on the east side of the room, near where several companion quests start.
After approaching the key, it will fly to the west part of the room, and then down a hallway leading to the right. Up some stairs in this hallway, there will be its cabinet.
In the north corner of the Central Hall, you’ll find the key next to a staircase and below a balcony, in a little alcove with one blank wall and one covered in portraits.
When you approach the key, it will fly to the opposite side of the Central Hall, to the west corner of the room, right next to an Arithmancy Door, and very close to the entrance to the transfiguration courtyard.
Going up the stairs from the Central Hall and into the Viaduct Entrance, you’ll find the key hidden away below a set of stairs to the southwest of the room, in a fairly empty area.
Once you approach it, it will fly back toward the Central Hall and down a single flight of stairs, where the cabinet will be waiting on the northeast side of a landing.
Starting at the Grand Staircase Floo Flame, enter the staircase itself and climb it until you nearly reach the Arithmancy Door (or, alternatively, go to the Grand Staircase Tower Floo Flame and go down the staircase). The key will be along a platform that is impossible to avoid if you are climbing the staircase either direction.
Once you get near it, it will fly down the grand staircase. Follow it down until you reach the hallway where an Arithmancy Door and Floo Flame are, leading to the House Points Trackers and the Grand Hall. The Cabinet will be to your right if you are heading toward the points trackers.
The key will be on the lower floor of the library, in the aisle of shelves to the right of the fireplace on the southwest wall of the library.
After you approach it, it will fly to the other side of the library, where the cabinet will be against the northwest wall of the library, still on the lower floor.
The Key in the Quad Courtyard is one of the trickier ones to find. To get there, you’ll need to head to the courtyard, then up some flights of stairs until you come to an arch leading out (not to be confused with the taller arch where the Floo Flame is located.
After you approach the key, it will fly down the stairs, across quite a bit of the courtyard, and to its cabinet, which is tucked in behind a set of curving stairs on the lower level of the courtyard, against the wall of the castle itself.
You might come across this Key during the main quest The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament. It is flying around on the third floor of the Faculty Tower, just in front of an Arithmancy Door and near the door with balloons.
Once you approach it, it will fly down the stairs to the ground floor of the Faculty Tower, where the cabinet will be right next to the flight of stairs itself.
Down one floor from the Hospital Wing Floo Flame, there is a very long (and often foggy) hallway leading to the Bell Tower, where the key will be flying around near the center.
When you approach the key, it will fly in the direction of the Hospital Wing/Faculty Tower, where the cabinet will be to the right of the door to the prefect’s bath, right next to a golden statue.
At the base of the Bell Tower, near the Floo Flame and near where the Crossed Wands quests take place, you’ll need to go through a locked door (which you can unlock with Alohomora Rank I). This will take you up some stairs and along a path to the top of the Bell Tower. Follow this path up until you come to a wooden landing on the opposite side of the room from where you entered the locked door. There will be a key flying around near hear.
On approach, the Key will fly up one more level, requiring you navigate up another set of stairs. The cabinet is, essentially, just a level up from where you found the key itself.
How to Unlock the Cabinets and House Tokens
To unlock the house cabinets after chasing a key back to them (any key approached will automatically make its way to its cabinet), you will need to slap the key into the keyhole. To do so, you’ll need to activate the minigame, and then wait. Eventually, the key will quickly fly across the cabinet and over the keyhole; you’ll need to slap it with / as it does. The timing of this is very precise (even moreso at higher levels), but if you are able to hit the key right as it passes above the keyhole, it will unlock the cabinet and give you a House Token.
One thing to keep in mind that is the key will give off a slight audio clue whenever it moves, though this does not always mean it will move across the keyhole. Still, using this audio cue can help you know when to ready up in case it does.
How to Use House Tokens
Whenever you get a House Token, you can repeat the process at the beginning of The Daedaelian Keys and head back to your Common Room in order to insert the Token into your House Chest. The Chest has slots for 16 House Tokens, and will open once you insert all 16. This unlocks both the House Relic Robes collection (which, in our opinion, are some of the best looking pieces of attire in the game) and the ability to speak to Nellie again in order to complete The Daedalian Keys.
RavenclawSlytherinHufflepuffGryffindorThe best part? They all glow when you cast a spell!
Since the Daedalian Keys are all found within Hogwarts itself, and only one is locked behind a Rank I Alohomora door, this makes them the easiest collectible to get all of, provided you can deal with the minigame easily. It is also tied to a quest and some very appealing Appearance collections, giving you plenty of incentive to get them all, even if you aren’t planning on getting all the other (roughly 600) collectibles.
We hope that this guide has been helpful in this endeavor, and that you are enjoying your new, stylish robe! If it has, check out our other collectible guides in order to keep up the streak.
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he’ll try. When he isn’t working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
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as it does. The timing of this is very precise (even moreso at higher levels), but if you are able to hit the key right as it passes above the keyhole, it will unlock the cabinet and give you a House Token.
