Players are given an awful lot of freedom in Hogwarts Legacy, both when it comes to choosing which house they'll be sorted into and customizing the playable character's appearance. This freedom also extends to how the game plays, with players able to choose the best difficulty setting for themselves as well as play around with the image quality settings.
The highly anticipated title has a lot of different dials and sliders, allowing players to tweak and tailor the gameplay experience to their liking. For those curious about what all of the difficulty settings in Hogwarts Legacy mean or which display option will be better for them, this guide should have all of the answers.
Updated May 5, 2023, by Tom Bowen: Given how much more powerful the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles are than their last-gen counterparts, it should come as no surprise to learn that they offer the best way to play the game when it comes to home consoles. However, some gamers may not have made the leap to the current generation just yet and so may be wondering how Hogwarts Legacy holds up on the PS4 and Xbox One. Thankfully, the answer is a whole lot better than many players might expect.
What is the Best Difficulty Setting in Hogwarts Legacy?
The best difficulty setting in Hogwarts Legacy will vary from player to player, depending on both their skill levels and the degree of challenge that they're hoping to get out of the game. There are four different difficulty settings available, with the main differences between them being how much damage enemies are able to deal to players and how much they are able to absorb. The window of time in which players can successfully cast Protego is also smaller on harder difficulty settings. As one might expect, "Story" is the easiest of the four settings and "Hard" is the hardest.
- Story: A focus on the story with minimal gameplay challenge
- Easy: A light gameplay challenge
- Normal: A balanced gameplay challenge
- Hard: A demanding gameplay challenge
How to Change the Difficulty Setting in Hogwarts Legacy
Players will be asked to choose a difficulty setting before starting the game, though needn't worry too much about their decision. This is because players will be able to change the difficulty setting at any time simply by pausing the game and navigating to the "Gameplay Options" menu. Completionists may also be interested to learn that there are no trophies/achievements tied to the player's difficulty setting, meaning that all of them can be unlocked while playing the game on the "Story" setting if players so wish.
What is the Best Image Quality Setting in Hogwarts Legacy?
There are three image quality settings in Hogwarts Legacy, though players will only have access to two of them (Fidelity and Performance) when they're first asked to choose their image quality settings at the beginning of the game. The third, Fidelity with Raytracing, can only be activated from the "Display Options" menu, which is the second tab down on the pause menu. Players will also be able to decide whether to cap the frame rate from this menu, with the setting being enabled by default.
- Fidelity: A high-fidelity rendering mode favoring resolution and graphical quality.
- Fidelity with Raytracing: A higher-fidelity rendering mode featuring Raytracing.
- Performance: A high-framerate move favoring performance.
The best image quality settings in Hogwarts Legacy will come down to a combination of personal preference and the type of display that players are using. Those playing the game in 4K will need to decide whether high frame rate (Performance) or graphical fidelity (Fidelity) is more important to them, while also bearing in mind that turning on Raytracing will noticeably lower the framerate (though DLSS can help to mitigate this on PC). Anyone playing the game in 1080P or 1440P will probably want to opt for Performance mode, particularly if their display maxes out at 60Hz.
How Does Hogwarts Legacy Perform on PS4 and Xbox One?
Although they may not offer ray tracing support or super high refresh rates, the last-gen ports of Hogwarts Legacy manage to keep up with their next-gen counterparts surprisingly well. On a base PS4 or Xbox One, players can expect a resolution of 1600x900P and a solid 30fps. The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X are capable of running Hogwarts Legacy at full 1080P, again, with a fixed framerate of 30fps.
Players will have the option to unlock the framerate on all four consoles, though the results can be somewhat sporadic, with the weaker machines typically clocking in at between 30 and 50 fps and the stronger ones managing anywhere from 30 to 60. With this in mind, those who prefer a smooth gameplay experience may want to keep the framerate locked, especially if playing on the PS4 or Xbox One.
Hogwarts Legacy is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and PC. A Switch version is currently in development.