In the new Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy, six different enemy types make life difficult for you: from spiders and goblins to trolls and black magicians. Especially when you play on a higher level of difficulty or approach the finale of the game, the danger posed by your enemies increases – because they level with you. So you have to gain a decisive advantage. Hogwarts Legacy (buy now €59.99 / €53.99) offers you the opportunity to increase your protection against the six types of opponents by killing a certain number of them. A good way to do this is with the game’s three hidden battle arenas. We show you where to find them and how to master them. By the way: In our guide to Merlin’s riddles you will learn how to increase your inventory.
Finding the Battle Arenas – Locations
The arenas are located in different parts of the world. You can reach them all once you’ve visited Hogsmeade. From that moment on, the entire world outside of Hogwarts is open to you. However, some of the places you are looking for are so far away from the castle that you should consider waiting until you get your own broom from Madam Kogawa after the flying lesson. This makes traveling much faster.
North Shore Battle Arena: Swamp at North Ford South Shore Battle Arena: Feldcroft Region Dark Arts Battle Arena: Region northeast of Hogwarts
The “North Shore Battle Arena” is located to the east of the northernmost area of the map, the swamp at the North Ford. In an old ruin, pretty much due west of the northeast burrow of the giant purple toad. The “Battle Arena of the South Shore” is about halfway down the map, a fair bit south of Hogwarts. More specifically, at the southern tip of the Feldcroft region.
In case you were wondering: the corresponding symbol (a white figure with a cloak and open arms on a black square) only appears when you are very close to the two arenas. However, you can also get to the arena in the south automatically as part of the side quest “Vase Maneuver”.
Hogwarts Legacy: Find and Master the Three Hidden Battle Arenas – Tips (2) Source: Avalanche Software
It’s easier with the “Battle Arena of the Dark Arts”. It is located in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, near the fast travel station in the region northeast of Hogwarts. In this case, the icon will appear on the world map from the start – if you own the arena. It is only included in the Deluxe Edition or in the paid “Dark Arts Pack”.
Unlocking the Battle Arenas – Requirements
Once you have arrived at the locations in question, you must destroy a certain number of vases that are distributed throughout the area. The basic magic, which you receive right at the beginning of the game, is sufficient for this. To make your search easier, you can simply cast the revealing spell Revelio. The vases then glow blue.
North Shore Battle Arena: destroy 20 vases South Shore Battle Arena: destroy 20 vases Dark Arts Battle Arena: destroy 10 vases
Once the vessels are destroyed, the striking stone statue opens its arms and lets you enter.
Tackling the Battle Arenas – Preparations
However, it makes sense to prepare before entering the arenas. Once you have completed the main quest “Percival Rackham’s Trial”, it is advisable to visit the places of old magic in the world in order to expand your corresponding display and thus be able to use old magic more often. You should also stock up on potions and plants. The thunder brew or the Chinese chewing cabbage, for example, help to deal with a superior number of opponents. The preparations are not exactly cheap, so here is a guide for you to get gold quickly.
Recommended editorial contentHere you can find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external links are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on “Load all external content”: Load all external content I agree that external content can be displayed to me. Personal data is thus transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy.
Mastering the Battle Arenas – Battle Tips
As soon as you enter the battle arenas, the first of five rounds starts straight away, and in each of them different opponents await you. We put together for you in which arena we had to deal with which enemies in which round. Our character was at level 30 at this point.
North Shore Battle Arena:Round 1: Black Mages & SpidersRound 2: Black Mages & InferiRound 3: Black MagesRound 4: SpidersRound 5: Black Mages, Spider & InferiSouth Coast Battle Arena:Round 1: TrollRound 2: Stray DogsRound 3: Goblins, Swamp Crawlers & SpidersRound 4: Trolls, Spiders & Stray DogsRound 5: Trolls & KoboldsDark Arts Battle Arena:Round 1: Black MagesRound 2: GoblinsRound 3: Black Mages, Goblins & InferiRound 4: TrollsRound 5: Black Mages & Troll
Large enemies like trolls or the Acrumantula spider are good targets for Avada Kedabra if you’ve already learned the spell. If not, it makes sense to initially ignore the big opponents and dodge their red attacks until you have defeated all the smaller opponents and can now devote yourself to the big villains on your own.
The Dark Arts Battle Arena is an exception here. There you can use all three Unforgivable Curses as well as Confringo, regardless of whether you have already unlocked the spells or not. Because the dark curses have the ability to overcome all enemy wards, this arena is generally a bit easier to get through. But it is just as little a cakewalk as the other two reasons for fighting.
Hogwarts Legacy: Find and Master the Three Hidden Battle Arenas – Tips (1) Source: Avalanche Software
Black mages and goblins have a habit of standing on wooden knolls at the edge of the arena and casting their spells from up there – mostly red and unblockable. Therefore, take care of them first before you forget about them and get hit at an unwary moment. This works well, for example, with old magic throws from objects such as boxes, stones or barrels.
Swamp Crawlers are the most dangerous of the smaller enemies on the ground. They mostly use red attacks and can take a lot of damage themselves. So leave them alone until you’ve dealt with easier opponents like small spiders or street dogs. Although spiders attack you with red attacks, they are quite easy to kill. Here you should not forget to pay attention to the ground. Sometimes the animals bury themselves and then jump at you from below.
Street mutts are the easiest opponents in the battle arenas. They only use orange attacks that you can block well. If you’ve unlocked the talent Stupor Expertise, which lets your Stupor spells do damage, that’s almost enough. In both cases, (area-wide) flame spells like Incendio prove to be very helpful. They are even necessary in the fight against the Inferi. The undead enemies are quite easy to defeat – once they are on fire. Before that, they’re pretty much invulnerable.
Using the Battle Arenas – Rewards
Contesting and mastering the three battle arenas offers you several advantages. First of all, they will help you complete the game’s various combat challenges. In it, you must defeat a certain number of each enemy type to unlock increased protection against them. Each challenge has different levels.
Black Mages: defeat 10 -> 20 -> 40 -> 70 -> 100 Swamp Rattles: defeat 5 -> 10 -> 20 Goblins: defeat 30 -> 60 -> 100 Inferi: defeat 10 -> 20 -> 36 Spiders: 10 -> 20 – > 40 -> 70 -> defeat 100 Stray Dog: 10 -> 20 -> defeat 30
Defeating each number of enemies grants attributes with reduced, significantly reduced, and finally significantly reduced damage from the affected enemy type. After the main quest “The Elf, the Grabsack and the Loom” you can attach these attributes to your clothes using a loom.
The materials you need to attach the attributes to the clothing can either be bought from merchants after the said quest, or obtained by brushing and feeding your own beasts.
Reduced damage: 1x Muffy Muff Hair (automatic in the quest “The Elf, the Snapbag and the Loom) Significantly reduced damage: 1x Feather of a Diricawl (burrow on the way from Hogsfield to Keenbridge on the right) Significantly reduced damage: 1x Kneeselfur (burrow south of Brocburrow in Hogwarts Valley)
If you have completed the three arenas victoriously, you will each receive a cosmetic reward. However, these are not normal pieces of equipment with specific values in health, defense and offense. It’s more like visual overlays that you put on top of your actual gear to change its appearance.
North Shore Battle Arena: Thief’s Cloak South Shore Battle Arena: Ashvane Robe Dark Arts Battle Arena: Dueler’s Mask
If you have overcome the battlefields in the north and south, you will also receive the achievement “Face the Challenges”. You don’t need to master the Dark Arts arena to do this. You can also get the achievement if you ‘only’ own the base game for Hogwarts Legacy.
