Beginner/Advanced Tips And Tricks For Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy is a gigantic game, and while it is not that challenging, inexperienced RPG players might still have a difficult time beating it. Here are some of the most useful tips and tricks in order to beat the game more efficiently.

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 until you can unlock locks with Alohamora. Alohamora is the time when you get almost every tool you need to do almost all puzzles. However, for pure efficiency don't start exploring until you've beaten the game.
• 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.
• 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.
• Complete Challenges To Upgrade Your Character - Some Challenges give cosmetics but other Challenges give Upgrades to your character like more space for gear, more Ancient Magicka bars, etc... So keep up with your challenges.
• You Can Loot On The Fly - Some areas on the overworld are kind of a pain to land with your broom and you may not want to actually jump around to get the loot in them. So instead, just don't land and fly up to the chest or sack with your broom and loot it while still on your broom.
• Do Side Quests To Unlock New Content - Side Quests and Assignments give new spells and puzzles to solve. If you don't keep up with Side Quests, then you can quickly find yourself discovering a lot of things that you aren't able to access yet or completely missing out on things you don't even know exist.
• 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.
• Spend Your Money - There isn't any reason to save it. Buy things you want or need because you'll earn more later.
• 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. I consider getting Alohamora to be the prime time to start exploring because you will have to unlock 3 Levels of Alohamora to unlock everything, and getting levels 2 and 3 require exploration anyway so you will end up having to do some re-exploration regardless.
• Accio Loot! - It's not uncommon to see a sack far away and you can't figure out how to get there. Luckily Accio is able to move bags and(in rare and specific cases) chests right to you so you can loot them.

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.
• 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.
• 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. 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.
• 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 or insta-kill in combat. Use Glacius or Arresto Momentum to catch a single enemy away from the group for an easy finish if they are being difficult to stealth behind.
• 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.
• Ancient Magicks Can Finish A Fight - Ancient Magicks give you an ability to deal massive amounts of damage to a singular target once you have them charged up. Save them and use them on the "boss" of any group and you can sweep up the weaklings however you like for easy victory.
• 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.
• Chain Spells for Massive Damage - Spells perform combos and when you add Talents they can devastate whole groups at once and even insta-kill single or groups of enemies.
  • Levioso/Accio/Flipendo + Descendo = Lift an enemy then slam them down.
  • Levioso/Accio/Flipendo + Depulso into Wall + Descendo = Lift, slam into wall, slam into ground.
  • Accio + Incendio = Pull enemies in then burn them
  • Expelliarmus + Ancient Magick Throw = Disarm an enemy and use their weapon against them.
  • Glacius + Diffindo/Bombarda/Confrindo/Incendio = Freeze an enemy (which increases the damage of the next hit) then heavily damage them.

Overpowered Spell Combos And Finishers

These are some of the most overpowered combos in the game that you should use to finish enemies.

• Massive Damage Combo Sniper = Levioso + Descendo + Glacius + Diffindo - Lift an enemy, smash them to the ground, freeze them and shatter them. Good for yellow shields.
• Massive Damage Combo Shotgun = Accio + Descendo + Glacius + Incendio - Pull enemy in, smash them to the ground, freeze them and burn them to a crisp. Good for purple shields.
• Last Enemy Finisher = Accio + Glacius/Arresto Momentum + Petrificus Totalus - This only works on the last enemy, and only if they are small/can be killed with Petrificus Totalus. Pulls them in, freezes them in place to end combat and then finishes them.
• Group Finisher = Crusio Mastery + Basic Attacks + Avada Kedavra Mastery - Curse one enemy and then basic until all enemies are cursed. Then when you Avada Kedavra any enemy they will all die.
• Like Fish In A Barrel = Transfiguration + Depulso - This combo is ridiculous because it feels like it shouldn't work this way but it does. Transfigure ANY enemy that can be transfigured then use Depulso to launch them and they will shatter for an instant kill. Change to Transfiguration Mastery to also make them explode.
• Last Enemy Big Finisher = Imperio + Petrificus Totalus - The improved version that will let you kill any enemy, even a troll, so long as it is the last enemy in combat. Turn them friendly and repeatedly petrify them until they die. If they survive the curse, curse them again.

>>> Read more: 100% Achievement Guide For Hogwarts Legacy