Hogwarts Legacy – All Spells And The Best Spells To Use

Hogwarts Legacy allows your character to learn over a dozen spells. Some act as mechanical functions intrinsic to the core gameplay, whereas others are primarily for combat. Here’s our Hogwarts Legacy best spells guide to help you acquire all the skills your character could use.

Types of spells in Hogwarts Legacy

There are two primary classifications of spells in Hogwarts Legacy:

• Essential – These are considered “core” or “intrinsic” in that they’ll always be active once you obtain them. They offer new gameplay functions or mechanics.
• Equippable – These are spells that often require you to trace a pattern before you can learn them. You may then assign them to a spell slot. This category can be further subdivided based on school/color/usage (i.e., Control/yellow, Force/purple, Damage/red, Conjuring/light green, Utility/light blue, and Unforgivable Curse/dark green).

List of Essential Spells

Below, we list down all the Essential Spells in Hogwarts Legacy. Given that they’re used for a variety of functions or contexts, we don’t necessarily need to cite which ones are the best for a given situation:

• Basic Cast – A spammable normal attack; learned at the start of the campaign.
• Revelio – Used to ping the map to reveal objects, enemies, or points-of-interest; learned at the start of the campaign.
• Protego and Stupefy – This is the game’s version of blocking and countering. Press the block button to create a Protego bubble. Do it at the right time to follow up with a Stupefy counter.
• Ancient Magic Throw – Throw objects at your target; can also destroy shields; learned when you fight a Troll during your first visit to Hogsmeade.
• Ancient Magic – Cast devastating elements or other random tricks (i.e., polymorph into a chicken) to heavily damage a foe or take them out of the fight entirely. You’ll activate this for the first time when fighting said Troll in Hogsmeade.
• Petrificus Totalus – Unlocked after you complete the Secrets of the Restricted Section main quest.
• Alohomora – Obtained once you do The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament quest. This can be further upgraded to open higher-level locks by collecting Demiguise Statues/Moons.

List of Equippable Spells – Main quest and assignments

The spells below are equipped in limited slots, so you’ll likely swap them around depending on the situation. They can come from main story progression or assignments from various Hogwarts professors (i.e., short tasks with tallies). We’ve listed them based on the order that we acquired them during the campaign:

• Lumos – Turns your wand into a light source; learned at the start of the campaign.
• Accio – Pulls enemies and objects toward you; obtained by attending your first Charms class.
• Levioso – Lifts enemies and objects into the air; obtained by attending your first Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA) class.
• Reparo – Repairs broken and ruined objects; obtained by completing an assignment from Professor Ronen.
• Incendio – Blasts a torrent of flame in an arc; received after you do your second DADA assignment.
• Disillusionment – Unlocked at the start of the Secrets of the Restricted Section quest.
• Expelliarmus – Disarms an opponent and causes them to lose their wand/weapon; received after you do your second DADA assignment.
• Depulso – Forcefully pushes a target away from your character; received after you do your first Potions assignment.
• Confringo – Casts a long-ranged jet of flames; unlocked by completing In the Shadow of the Undercroft, a companion quest from Sebastian Sallow of Slytherin.
• Diffindo – Shoots out several blades that slash your foe; received after you do your second Potions assignment.
• Wingardium Leviosa – Lifts a target into the air, but allows for additional movement and precision compared to Levioso; received after you do your first Herbology assignment.
• Flipendo – Smash a target into the ground or upside down; received after you do your second Herbology assignment.
• Glacius – Freeze targets in a block of ice; received after you do your first Flying Class assignment.
• Arresto Momentum – Stop a target from moving; received after you do your second Flying Class assignment.
• Descendo – Pulls down an airborne target to the ground; received after you do your Divination assignment.
• Bombarda – Blasts a target and creates an area-of-effect (AoE) explosion; received after you do your Beasts Class assignment.
• Transformation – Changes the form of your target (i.e., puzzle blocks); received after you do your Transfiguration assignment.

Room of Requirement spells

The Hogwarts Legacy spells below are used in the Room of Requirement and Vivarium:

• Evanesco – Removes obstacles and decorations to refund the Moonstone cost.
• Conjuring Spell – Allows you to place down furniture and fixtures.
• Altering Spell – Changes the color and size of a decoration or furniture.

Beast taming and capturing spells

The following spells are related to the Beast taming and Vivarium sanctuary mechanics:

• Beast Petting Brush – Pets a magical creature that you’ve tamed to increase affinity.
• Beast Feed – Gives treats to your pets to increase affinity.
• Nab-Sack – Used to capture magical creatures so you can bring them to your Vivarium.

Unforgivable Curses

These Unforgivable Curses are dark magic spells in Hogwarts Legacy. They are obtained by following a certain classmate’s quest chain, which will become available much later in the game. Be forewarned that there are major spoilers below.

• Crucio – The Torture Curse which causes enemies to suffer excruciating pain and damage-over-time; complete In the Shadow of the Study and choose to learn the spell.

• Imperio – Mind controls a target so they fight alongside you; complete In the Shadow of Time and choose to learn the spell.

• Avada Kedavra – Instantly kills your target; complete In the Shadow of the Relic and choose to learn the spell.

The best spells in Hogwarts Legacy

Now that we’ve discussed all the magic abilities, it’s time to talk about the best spells in Hogwarts Legacy. To be clear, though, certain spells become viable simply because of their color/grouping. For instance, if you have an opponent with a yellow shield, you’ll want to use a Control-type spell like Levioso just to break their defenses. There are, however, a few combinations that are worth trying out:

• Incendio and Confringo – Both fire spells tend to be used often (and you might want to have them both equipped at the same time in certain situations). They’re extremely effective against Spiders and Inferi, too. One more tidbit of note is that the Incendio Mastery talent causes an AoE fire blast, which is amazing for fights against multiple hostiles.
• Levioso – By default, Levioso is great for crowd control since it keeps an enemy in mid-air for a few seconds. It gets even better once you get Levioso Mastery since it will affect nearby opponents.
• Depulso – What makes Depulso great is that it lets you push enemies off ledges and platforms, which is hilarious when you’re exploring the wilderness and cliffside areas. The Depulso Mastery also creates a shockwave with the knockback effect.
• Glacius and Incendio/Confringo – This will likely become your bread-and-butter combo once the spells are unlocked. Glacius encases foes in an ice block and, if you shoot them with Incendio or Confringo, the shatter effect will deal more damage.
• Avada Kedavra – You can only get the Killing Curse much later in the campaign, but it’s well worth it. Similar to the novels and films, it leads to instant death for your target regardless of their health or level.

Related: The best talents to use early in the game.