The new open-world role-playing game Hogwarts Legacy offers you the opportunity to make decisions at various points. Some of them have more weight, some less. But many of them are irreparable – you can’t undo them once you hit them. We have therefore summarized in this guide when you should be careful, what is at stake and what the consequences are.
Your own character is – almost – final
Right at the beginning of the game, even before the action starts, you create your own character. In the editor you have the possibility to choose from many different variables. Whether female or male, whether freckles or scars, whether undercut or braid. You should take as much time as you need here, because some of the adjustments cannot be changed afterwards:
Face ShapeSkin ColorToneVoice PitchNameDorm
In Hogsmeade, the seamstress Calliope Snelling has her salon “Madam Snellings Lockenporium”, which is open to you after your first trip to the magician’s village. There you can still change some features afterwards. But that doesn’t work with everyone. During the game you can customize:
Hair colorHairstyleFace colorFreckles and birthmarksScars and marksEye colorEyebrow colorEyebrow shape
The house division is final
After you have explored an old ruin in the Scottish highlands with Professor Fig in the first quest of the game “The Road to Hogwarts”, you will go directly to the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – to the selection ceremony for one of the four houses. Once in the Great Hall, the Sorting Hat will ask you several questions. How you answer them will determine which house suggests the magical headgear for you.
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Hogwarts Legacy | This is how house division works
1. Sorting Hat: “You already have certain preferences and ideas – certain expectations.”
I’m looking forward to the classes. I’m dying to explore.
It doesn’t matter what you choose here. This choice has no effect on your later house.
2. Sorting Hat: “Hm. Interesting. Hm. I sense something in you. A certain sense of… Hm, what is it?”
Audacity. (-> Gryffindor) Curiosity. (-> Ravenclaw)Loyalty. (-> Hufflepuff) Ambition. (-> Slytherins)
If you’ve already taken the more detailed test of the four houses on the Wizarding World website, you can link your accounts and import your decision into the game. We have explained to you exactly how this works here. In this case, the Sorting Hat omits the second question and recommends the appropriate house. If you do not agree with the suggestion, you can also choose your affiliation manually. But that’s only possible here, because once you’ve decided on the house, it’s no longer possible to change it afterwards.
So you should think carefully about who you want to belong to. However, there are plenty of reasons to try out each of the four houses. Each has its own common room, which you – at least theoretically – can only enter as a member. There is a glitch that allows you to enter all four rooms. Here we show you how it works. However, this is not intended by the game.
Hogwarts Legacy: These decisions have the strongest consequences – Overview (2) Source: Avalanche Software
In addition to one or the other in-house piece of clothing and small adapted dialogues, the main quest “The hunt for the missing pages” is also different depending on the choice. If you are a Hufflepuff, this quest will take you, for example, to the famous high-security prison Azkaban. There is also an achievement specific to each house. So you can’t avoid getting to a certain point in the main story with each house if you want to have all the achievements.
“Hail to Toast” = Find the Chamber of Cards as Slytherin “In Auror School” = Find the Chamber of Cards as Hufflepuff “A Gryffindor Among Tombs” = Find the Chamber of Cards as Gryffindor “The Wise Owl” = Find the Chamber of Cards as Ravenclaw
You reach the map chamber after about eight hours of play.
Your own magic wand remains
After your first two Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms classes, Professor Weasley sends you to Hogsmeade to get some things. You can also visit Ollivanders there to design your own magic wand. You can set various attributes yourself:
Wood speciesCore typeFlexibilityMagic wand length
If you’ve already obtained your own wand from the Wizarding World website, you have the option to add it to the game just like you did with your house. In this case, your finished staff will be created as a template. But you can still change everything yourself here. And even if you don’t want that: The style of your magic wand is not predetermined in any way, so the appearance of your tool is still up to you.
Hogwarts Legacy: These decisions have the strongest consequences – Overview (3) Source: Avalanche Software
However, changes to your magic wand are only possible at this point in time – afterwards it is no longer possible for you to change your wooden utensil. You can only change the wand handle. There are a total of 42 of them to be found in the game.
No relationship with your companions
As this is your first visit to the Wizarding Village, Professor Weasley asks you to bring someone with you. Here you have the choice between Sebastian Sallow and Natsai Onai. The relevant main quest “Welcome to Hogsmeade” therefore proceeds in two different ways with different conversations – depending on which accompaniment you choose. However, this does not have any profound effects on the plot and the further role of the two companions. So it doesn’t really matter who you take with you.
In the course of the story, Sebastian and Natsai also receive their own relationship quest series, which offer a different number of quests. This is joined by Poppy Sweeting from the house of Hufflepuff. These three people are your companions throughout the game. Although you get along very well with them, you don’t have the opportunity to develop a romantic relationship with one or more of the characters – you just remain friends.
Good and bad decisions in side quests
In addition to “Welcome to Hogsmeade” you also have the opportunity to make decisions in various side quests. But then often only related to the outcome of the respective quest. Often this boils down to a choice of good versus evil:
Plenty of Goblin Stones: Keep Goblin Stones or give them back to Zenobia NokeToxic Valor: Keep the Venemosa Tentacula Leaf or give to Duncan HobhouseDark Depths: Keep the Sea Artifact or give to Nerida RobertsThe Lost Astrolabe: The Lost Astrolabe keep, give to Grace Pinch-Smedley for free or for a fee
Hogwarts Legacy: These decisions have the strongest consequences – Overview (4) Source: Avalanche Software
You also have the opportunity to obtain various unique creatures for the Room of Requirement. Some, like the Irondale thief in “A Thief in the Night” or the unicorn Hazel in “The Unique Unicorn”, are automatic. You can claim others if you want them:
“The Rescue of Rococo”: Return Niffler Rococo to Agnes Coffey or keep for yourself”A Rare Bird”: Bring albino Diricawl Gwyneira to Marianne Moffett or keep for yourself”Save Biscuit”: Return Mooncalf Biscuit to Goblin Garnuff or keep for yourself
It is important to mention at this point, however, that you can rename your captured animal creatures as soon as you have selected them in the Room of Requirement. So if you’re not moral about keeping Rococo for yourself, then you’re free to just give another Niffler his name.
The side quest with the biggest impact on the game world is “A Portrait in Trouble”. In the quest, you will ask Ferdinand Octavius Pratt in the Hogwarts library to recover one of his paintings that was stolen. At the end of the quest, you can choose to destroy the portrait after finding it, hanging it back in the Three Broomsticks or in the Boar’s Head.
However, these decisions do not affect your character, because there is no moral system in Hogwarts Legacy (buy now €59.99 / €53.99).
Hogwarts Legacy: These decisions have the strongest consequences – Overview (5) Source: Avalanche Software
The Three Unforgivable Curses
Casting the three Unforgivable Curses Crucio, Imperio, and Avada Kedavra has just as little effect. And this despite the fact that the game itself mentions several times that the magician must absorb the evil of the curses in order to cast them. You learn them in three of Sebastian Sallow’s relationship quests – if you want:
“In the Shadow of the Study”: Crucio”In the Shadow of Time”: Imperio”In the Shadow of the Relic”: Avada Kedavra
You can also choose not to be taught the three spells – either temporarily or permanently. If you refuse to learn the quests in question, Sebastian will teach you the spells after the end of his relationship quest line in the Hogwarts crypt. However, you also have the option of turning Sebastian over to the Ministry at the end for his use of the Unforgivable Curses. This means he will be expelled from school and you will never see him again in game.
If you haven’t learned the three Unforgivable Curses from Sebastian by this point, you won’t be able to learn them in-game either. In principle, however, they are also optional. You don’t need them to complete the game or get the Spellmaster achievement, which requires you to learn all (other) spells. In addition, declining gives you the opportunity to spend the three talent points associated with Unforgivable Curses elsewhere. There are way too many slots for the talent points you get. But you also do without three powerful spells that make the game much easier for you, especially towards the end – especially the curse Avada Kedavra.
The end of the story gives you another chance to choose the good side or the bad side. In the main quest “The Last Container”, Professor Fig asks you what you intend to do with the jar under Hogwarts in which Isidora Morganach stored the dark magic. Depending on what you answer here – whether you want to leave the orb as it is (good choice) or release the evil energy (bad choice) – you will get a different ending. However, this does not have far-reaching effects on the rest of the game either: You have to fight Ranrok in one way or another and Professor Fig dies in one way or another at the end.
Basically, there are some decisions that you can make that also have certain effects. At the same time, however, Hogwarts Legacy also gives away massive opportunities, for example by omitting a developed moral system. For example, being able to play a really evil wizard who is visually and visibly using the Unforgivable Curses would not only add weight to the Dark Arts DLC pack, it would also encourage multiple playthroughs. The developers may also make improvements here in the future, for example in the form of additional DLCs.
