With the danger and excitement of the trip to Hogwarts and the unexpected detour, players of Hogwarts Legacy get a chance to make themselves at home and attend some classes. The first day at a new school means a lot to learn and a huge castle to explore, so let's get started.
Hogwarts Legacy opens the first day by offering players a chance to explore their House Common Room and chat with the students there, learning a bit about the school and their classmates before heading outside to find Professor Weasley. She's waiting to give players one of the most useful tools in their academic career: The Wizard's Field Guide.
The Wizard's Field Guide
This enchanted book functions as the game's menu, allowing players to manage their inventory, view their tasks and quests, and access their maps. Initially, players only have access to the Hogwarts and Hogsmeade maps, but a map of the greater area surrounding Hogwarts and Hogsmeade will become available later on.
Follow Professor Weasley's instructions to learn about Floo Flames and Field Guide pages, and before long, players will reach the Great Hall. After a conversation with Professor Weasley and another with Professor Fig, players are free to explore the castle.
Charms Class (Accio)
Using the Field Guide and its guidance abilities, players can easily find their way to the Charms classroom. This is where players get to meet several new characters and learn a highly useful and versatile new spell. After getting introduced to Griffindor Student Natsai Onai and Charms Professor Ronen, players are introduced to the Summoning Charm: Accio. After succeeding at the minigame to learn the spell, Professor Ronen takes the class outside for fresh air and a more complicated round of Accio practice.
Summoner's Court is a fairly straightforward challenge, though it requires players to have good timing. The goal is to summon a ball from the far end of the court and release the spell so that it stops in one of the scoring zones. The nearer a zone is to the player, the higher the score, but pulling the ball off the edge results in players getting no points. After a round of practice, the Professor pairs the player up with Natty for a proper match.
Winning here isn't necessary, and Natty is very good at this, but it's still worth a shot. Releasing the spell when the ball is in the yellow zone should give it enough momentum to stop in the final zone for maximum points, but if a ball is knocked out of the court those points are deducted. Players feeling cheeky might want to try pushing Natty's balls off of the court with their own, using them as a brake in the process, though this requires more careful positioning.
After completing the first round of Summoner's Court, the Professor will conjure moving blocks to serve as additional obstacles and invite Natty and the player to play again. Players should be able to avoid the blocks by beginning their Accio spell while the two blocks are either in the middle (if trying to move the ball through the middle) or on one of the edges (if moving the ball down the side of the court). Note that balls knocked out of play will not be counted towards the final score, and while winning does nothing but change some dialog, it's certainly worth trying anyway.
After the match and some dialog between the Protagonist and Natty, and a quick chat with the Professor, the first Charms Class is over.
Defense Against the Dark Arts Class (Levioso)
Heading up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom, players walk in on a fierce duel between two Students. An exploding charm gets deflected into the skeleton above, but it is caught and reattached by Professor Hecat, who breaks up the duel and uses it as an opportunity to cover the basics again.
After giving the class a quick rundown on Levioso, the levitation spell, the Professor provides a tutorial on one of its uses, allowing players to stop foes from reflecting their basic cast with yellow shields by throwing them into the air and off balance. Then players are paired with Sebastian Sallow for a duel.
This fight tests players on most of their combat skills so far, using Basic Cast, blocking with Protego, and using Levioso to get through yellow shields. Empty Sebastian's health bar or knock him off the end of the platform to win. Winning is optional, but it changes some dialog and isn't too tricky.
A full Basic Cast combo after Levioso will knock Sebastian back further, which is a useful trick to remember when fighting other foes too. After the duel, and a quick chat with Professor Hecat, players should speak to Sebastian to hear about an unsanctioned Dueling Club that might be worth looking into.
First Assignment (Reparo)
After both classes are attended players can go and speak to Professor Weasley to hear about the additional assignments the Professors are preparing for the player. She also wants the player to head into Hogsmeade and collect new supplies to replace what was lost in the Dragon attack, and suggests going there with a classmate.
Players can choose either Natty or Sebastian to go with them and then head out to find Professor Ronen for their first assignment.
Professor Ronen wants to teach players the Reparo spell, but has a couple of tasks that need to be completed first. He'd like the player to collect two flying Field Guide pages, one from near a broken statue opposite where he's standing in the Transfiguration Courtyard and another from the first floor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts Tower.
Both can be summoned toward the player with Accio, and they can be seen in the images above and below.
Return to Professor Ronen to learn Accio, give it a try on the Broken Statue, and then it's time to get to Hogsmeade.
The Trip to Hogsmeade
After meeting either Natty or Sebastian near the front gate, players can follow their friend to Hogsmeade and take in the sights on the way. They'll point out some points of interest on the trip, such as spots to find potion ingredients and the entrance to the Forbidden Forest. After making it to Hogsmeade, they'll suggest the player explores on their own for a bit, so it's time to go shopping.
Players will need to go to Olivanders for a wand, J. Pippin Potions for some recipes, The Magic Neep for some seeds, and Tomes and Scrolls to get some Spellcrafts. The order this is done doesn't matter, and running these errands will introduce players to several of Hogsmeade's highly useful shops.
At Olivanders, players will be able to finally get their own wand, and players who have linked their Pottermore account will notice that the wand defaults to their assigned Wand on Pottermore, though it can still be changed and edited however the player chooses.
After reuniting with Natty or Sebastian, players are interrupted by a troll attack. This troll has a lot of health and can deal a lot of damage, but it's also slow and fairly easy to dodge using the newly introduced dodge. Watch its movements, dodge its attacks, and pelt it with magic to whittle down its health.
After a while, a prompt to use "Ancient Magic Throw" will appear, allowing players to grab and throw nearby objects with spontaneous magic, which does excellent damage and can easily be mixed into attack combos. After its health is mostly depleted players will get the prompt to deal a finishing blow, vaporizing it with Ancient Magic.
With the troll beaten, players meet Officer Ruth Singer, who congratulates them and asks for some help fixing up the damage the troll caused. Repair the seven broken objects and buildings nearby, then head over to Gladrags, where the proprietor wants to offer a reward.
After this, a quick trip to the Three Broomsticks is momentarily interrupted by the discovery that Rookwood is working with Ranrok, and Rookwood makes an attempt to get to the player in the Three Broomsticks. Luckily, Sirona Ryan and their patrons step in and force him to leave. After a quick chat with Natty or Sebastian, players just need to Fast Travel to their dorm to finish the day.
Hogwarts Legacy is available for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, and coming soon to Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.