Hogwarts Legacy – Beginner/Advanced Tips and Tricks

This is a list of tips and tricks for players just starting out as well as those who have progressed further into the game.

Tips and Tricks

All credit goes to Athrek!

Intro

This guide is a list of things that will hopefully help you on your journey through Hogwarts. I will do my best to be as spoiler-free as possible but as the game itself spoils things(such as listing every spell in the game within the menu’s) whether or not something is considered a spoiler isn’t entirely clear.

I guarantee not to spoil the story itself so no worries about that.

Beginner Tips

This section will be the most useful tips for beginners but will not be a how-to guide on what needs to be done where. This section also focuses on efficiency and may not necessarily be the most fun way to experience the game so some tips may not apply to everyone.

• Choices Rarely Matter, So Don’t Stress – As far as has been discovered so far, only your choice of House and the ending actually do anything meaningful, as every other choice only effects dialogue. Your House will determine your dormitory as well as your House Quest and the design put on any “House Items” meant to show off your house such as robes, scarves, etc…. So don’t stress on your decisions so much and enjoy yourself.
• Focus The Main Story First – The Main Story grants access to a very large variety of spells and quality of life improvements that make the game much more enjoyable. As much fun as exploring Hogwarts is, if you don’t have the ability to open locks or solve puzzles because you don’t have the spell yet, you will be re-exploring Hogwarts half a dozen times to find everything. If you focus on the Main Quest first, you will be able to do everything in 1 trip. My personal recommendation is to just follow the track line for the main quest and only do what’s necessary to keep progressing with no added exploration at the start.
• Sell All Old Gear – You will find lots of gear on your journey with unique looks and statistics but early on, only numbers matter so equip your best gear and sell the rest. The unique looks can be set on any piece of gear and you keep the appearance in your list of choices even after the item is sold.
• You cannot Respec Talents, So Choose Wisely – You Cap at 35 Talent Points and there is no current way to Respec your Talents, though I wouldn’t be surprised if a potion was added in the future it’s not available now. There are 48 total Talents and only 35 points so while you can get most Talents, you can’t get everything. I’ll make a guide to Talents and Builds later that I’ll link here later.
• Count Using Zero Then One – You’ll understand why.
• The Dark Arts Aren’t Inherently Evil – There is no morality system in this game so nothing you do is inherently good or evil. The Dark Arts are simply one method to gain strong combat power. That said, you don’t need them to win fights so they aren’t necessary either so simply do as you like.

Combat

There are many approaches to combat so do what’s best for your playstyle.

• Change Dodge Key On Keyboard – Ctrl is an awful dodge key, pick something easy to click like V.
• Stealth Can Win a Fight Before It Starts Or Let You Escape – Turn invisible and use Petrificus Totalus along with it’s perk and you can one-shot most things and heavily damage anything else. Invisibility Potions can be used to make an escape if necessary
• Chain Spells for Massive Damage – Spells perform combos and when you add Talents they can devastate whole groups at once.
  • Levioso + Descendo will lift an enemy then slam then down.
  • Accio + Incendio will pull enemies in then burn them all.
  • Expelliarmus + Ancient Magick Throw Expertise will disarm an enemy and use their weapon against them.
  • Ultimate 1 Bar Combo = Levioso Mastery > Accio Mastery > Incendio Mastery > Descendo Mastery. This combo raises a group of enemies, pulls them to you, sets them on fire then smashes them into the ground. This will require buying the Talents for them.
  • Ultimate 2 Bar Combo = Ultimate 1 Bar Combo > Depulso Mastery > Transformation Mastery > Bombarda Mastery. This will create something that is unlikely to leave any group of enemies standing. This will require buying the Talents for them.
• Defense Before Offense – Dodging, Blocking and Countering is more important than attacking in this game because of how hard enemies hit and how much damage you can do just by countering. Always prioritize defending yourself.
• Stupefy Is Stupefyingly Overpowered – Stupefy is both a counter and a stun BUT you can use it on enemies that didn’t do anything to you. You can counter another enemy by holding Protego when prompted but use the resulting Stupefy on any enemy you want. Stupefy ignores enemy barriers, Stuns the enemy and can be improved with Talents to also deal damage and even curse the enemy, which I’ll explain shortly why that’s OP. So essentially, you can counter your way to victory in almost any fight in the game.
• Dark Arts = Easy Mode – Avada Kedavra Mastery not only kills any enemy but any cursed enemy. So the more enemies you curse, the more you can one shot. Imperio Mastery makes an enemy cursed and inflict curses when they attack. Crucio Mastery curses and enemy and spreads that curse to other enemies when you basic attack them. And finally Stunning Curse brings back how OP Stupefy is by cursing any enemy you Stupefy. If you act quickly, you can curse every enemy in a short time then kill them in a single attack which can make any hard battle easy as it ignores health and level entirely. Add in Curse Sapper and you get a free heal every kill as well.
• Items Are Your Friends – From Plants to Potions, items make combat easy with stuns, damage, defences and escapes. This can be abused to make yourself unkillable and keep your enemies from ever being able to defend themselves. It just costs money and/or time to make the items.
  • Endurus Potion Potency – Makes you invincible and auto-attacks enemies that use ranged attacks.
  • Maxima Potion Potency – Increases damage a lot and breaks shields with basic attacks
  • Focus Potion Potency – Reduces cooldowns of spells and potion lasts longer the more you use spells. Mix with Ultimate 1 Bar Combo listed above to make the potion last all battle.
  • Venomous Tentacula + Noxious – Venomous Tentacula shoots acid at enemies from range and Noxious increases its damage and causes it’s attacks to break shields.
• Traits Make A Great Thing Better – There are various traits you can add later in the game that increase damage dealt and reduce damage received. Play around with the Traits to find what suits you best. For example, a Stealth build should focus on Ambush Traits while an Upfront Combat build should consider Concentration Traits.

Exploration

There is lot to find in the game and many places to explore so this section will focus on making it as easy and efficient as possible.

• Wait To Actively Explore – If you try to explore before you’ve unlocked all your tools, you will end up wasting time on coming back to re-explore over and over. Passive exploration is fine and even helpful to increase your level but actively exploring too early will mostly just waste time finding things you can’t access.
• Actively Grab Floo Flames – Counter to what I just said, DO actively grab Floo Flames if you pass anywhere near them. They are your fast travel and can speed up exploring and questing considerably. Just grab them when it’s convenient. You won’t grab them all until you start actively exploring but that’s fine.
• Talents Are Very Convenient But Not Necessary – Revelio Mastery and the Spell Knowledge Talents make exploration go much more quickly, but they aren’t necessary. So don’t feel forced to use them, but use them if you have free points available.
• Listen For The Sound Or Use Accessibility Options – Immediately after casting Revelio, a sound tells you what direction and how far away Field Pages are from you. For those who can’t hear the sound for any reason, there is an option in the settings that adds a visual to your screen to show the direction for you. This also shows visuals for other sounds as well.
• Cast Revelio While Flying – If you cast Revelio while flying in the sky, you will reveal map locations instead of hidden objects.
• Cast Revelio Often And Keep An Eye To The Sky – Hidden objects are all over and that includes flying above your head. The flying Field Pages are particularly troublesome because they may be there one moment and gone the next. So using Revelio often makes sure you won’t miss when it flies by.
• Think Hard And Use The Right Tools – Some puzzles aren’t readily apparent but all can be solved through a combination of memory, logical reasoning and trying different tools. Lumos brighten things up and attracts insects, Incendio burns and lights things, Accio pulls things to you or pulls you to other things, etc… So just think over each tool, what it does, what it might do and what you need to do to solve the problem.