Welcome to EIP’s walkthrough for Hogwarts Legacy! Below, you’ll find everything you need to guide you through the game, from quest walkthroughs to information on spells and gear. If you’re looking for something specific, just use the contents button.
Quests
Like most RPGs, Hogwarts Legacy’s main story is told via a series of quests that must be undertaken in order. However, you aren’t obligated to only do the story quests — there are many other side missions and other quests that you can do to make your character stronger, learn new spells, or discover the secrets of the castle and the surrounding countryside. In fact, some side missions are required in order to complete the main story!
There are also optional quests that explore the story of the game’s companion characters, quests to find magical creatures, and class assignments your Professors send you on. At any point while doing the main story, you can take a break and do any of the available side quests, picking up the main story again when you feel like it. Note that, like the main story, many side quests are presented linearly, with certain quests unlocking only after you complete the previous quest in the chain.
Hogwarts Legacy’s main story missions are referred to collectively as The Golden Path. These are the missions that allow you to learn key spells, plus the mysterious Ancient Magic. They’ll also be how you progress the story, which involves Victor Rookwood, Ranrok, and the goblin rebellion — and almost certainly the Ancient Magic your character learns to master.
These extracurricular activities see you traipsing out to the Highlands around Hogwarts — finding, collecting, and battling as your Professors direct. Some of these quests are non-optional, as they allow you to learn spells that are required for completing the Golden Path story missions.
Side Quests won’t be a part of The Golden Path, but will still be an important part of your journey in Hogwarts Legacy. You’ll retrieve magical artifacts, learn the secrets of Hogwarts, and become a more powerful Witch or Wizard. These quests will also offer opportunities for you to choose between good and evil actions, affecting how other characters view you.
The four companions of Hogwarts Legacy (Poppy Sweeting, Sebastian Sallow, Natsai Onai, and Amit Thakkar) all have their own unique side missions. Each companions’ questline will unlock locations, tools, and quests that relate to their personalities — the relationship missions of animal lover Poppy Sweeting tend to involve beasts, for example, while the Slytherin companion’s questline sees you heading into spooky dungeons.
In order to add creatures to the Vivarium, you’ll need to first find them in the open-world — this is done via Beast Missions, and by looking for Beast Dens, which are marked by the symbol on the map. Completing Beast Missions, or rescuing beasts from Beast Dens, will allow you to care for them in the Vivarium. Doing so will then allow you to harvest important upgrade materials from the creatures.
Puzzle doors are scattered around Hogwarts Castle, and they all give the player rewards for solving the puzzle. The task might seem daunting at first, but the process behind solving these is pretty simple: convert symbols to numbers, figure out what number is missing to get to the sum in the center, and convert that number back to the symbol.
You’ll be collecting lots of different equippable items in Hogwarts Legacy, collectively referred to as Gear.
Gear items add to your Attack or Defense stats, or provide other benefits, with rarer gear offering more powerful bonuses.
Your character has 7 different equipment slots — you’ll want to make sure you’ve got something in every slot if possible, in order to maximize your character’s strength.
There are also two accessory slots, which hold your broom and your mount. These both serve as modes of transportation, with the main difference being that the broom can only be used in the air, while many mounts can land and walk.
It’s hard to immerse yourself in the Wizarding World if your character is wearing a silly outfit — but sometimes you want the best stats possible! Fortunately, it’s possible to make any piece of Gear look like any other Gear you’ve collected, allowing you to min-max your equipment while maintain a cohesive look.
Starting at Level 5, you’ll earn a Talent Point each time you level up. You can spend these Talents in the 5 Talent Trees — Talents do different things, but all help make you a stronger wizard. Here at the 5 Talent Categories and what they focus on:
Core – Talents that improve overall combat effectiveness, especially Essential Spells
Dark Arts – Talents that make the Unforgivable Curses stronger, or modify regular spells to act like Curses
Grow Plants which can be brought into combat to assist you
Care for the magical creatures you’ve rescued, which will live in the Vivarium and provide upgrade materials
The Room of Requirement can also be extensively customized and decorated. You can change the overall theme, add or remove objects, and generally make it a place all your own. This is done through the use of conjuration spells, which can be equipped from the Spells menu like any other spell.
No muggle weapons here — Hogwarts Legacy is all about spells. Whether it’s solving puzzles, fighting Dark Wizards, or being a Dark Wizard yourself, you’ll need to cast charms, curses, and other magical incantations to get the job done.
Most spells must be unlocked through quests, and then equipped. Spells can be placed in your Spell Diamonds, which can hold four spells — these correspond to the four face buttons on your controller. You start with only one spell diamond, but over the course of the game, you can unlock three additional spell diamonds. This means you can equip a total of 16 spells at once, out of a total of 23 equippable spells. These spells have cooldowns (a period after casting in which the spell cannot be cast), with more powerful spells taking longer to recharge before you can cast them again.
Equippable Spells are organized by category and color coded:
Control Spells
Force Spells
Damage Spells
Conjuration Spells
Utility Spells
Unforgivable Curses
Additionally, there are 8 Essential spells, which are also unlocked over the course of the game. Unlike the equippable spells, Essential spells are always available, and are generally cast in specific contexts. For example, once you’ve learned it, Alohomora (the Unlocking charm) can be cast on any lock you find. Unlike the above-mentioned spells, Essential Spells can be cast repeatedly with no cooldown — assuming the proper context is available.
Essential Spells:
Alohomora – Unlocks locks
Ancient Magic – Has a variety of unique effects
Basic Attack – Does a small amount of damage
Petrificus Totalus – Incapacitates targets that you sneak up again
Protego – Blocks incoming attacks
Revelio – Reveals hidden objects and passages
Stupefy – A counter-attack that stuns the attacker
The Alohomora Spell is unique among the essential spells. Casting it starts a minigame in which you use the left and right sticks to rotate the locks. Check out our Alohomara guide for detailed instructions and some tips!
Have a question about Hogwarts Legacy, or our guides? Have suggestions for us, or just want to tell us about a great spell combo you came up with? Let us know in the comments!
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DanielD
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
symbol on the map. Completing Beast Missions, or rescuing beasts from Beast Dens, will allow you to care for them in the Vivarium. Doing so will then allow you to harvest important upgrade materials from the creatures.
