It is quite amazing how many different things there are to do in the Hogwarts castle itself. From quite early on and throughout playing the game you tend to come across a lot of hidden passages and puzzles in the castle. While this is not an all-inclusive list this is just a few things I’ve enjoyed wandering around doing in the castle itself.
Eyeball Chest
For the most part, a lot of the different challenges and puzzles in the Hogwarts Castle are easy to resolve and once you do you instantly get some kind of reward for doing so. Some of these like this one are great to learn early on.
Once you are a little bit away from any chest that has an eyeball on it. If you turn yourself invisible either through a spell or potion you can walk right up to it and open the chest up.
These kinds of chests can also be found outside of the castle as well. Even more importantly. You will come across locked doors with an eyeball that watches you as well outside of the castle. They work just like these chests do.
Finding Field Guide Pages
Throughout the castle, there are quite a lot of Field Guide pages to find in different sections of the castle. They usually require casting some sort of spell to acquire. Some of them are easy to guess while others require a little more thinking.
Brazier
If an object looked like it could hold fire and is not already lit. There is a good chance it is hiding a Field Guide page. Simply casting Incendio can be enough to light it as long as you are pointing at the object itself. As featured in the above screenshot.
Statues
Many times you will come across different statues. While many of them are nothing. If you notice a spell symbol on any of them simply casting that spell is enough to yield you a Field Guide page or perhaps something else occurred.
In the example above at the base of the statue is the symbol for Levioso. The statue then responds accordingly.
Butterfly Mirrors
Butterfly mirrors can be found in quite a few different parts of the castle and even in different hamlets around the game as well. They depict a nearby location where a butterfly can be found resting at.
It is important to note these butterflies will be resting on an object. You won’t find them flying around. Once you do locate one you need to cast Lumos and not break the spell. The butterfly is attracted to the light and then you bring it back to the mirror.
This is also a use of Lumos. As you will find outside of the castle this works on larger groups of butterflies or as some people see them months to complete different challenges.
Flying Around
Your eyes are not deceiving you. If you think a page just flew past you or around in the background chances are it’s a Field Guide page. You simply need to strike it with the Accio spell to pull it toward yourself.
Bridge Brazier Puzzle
While walking between different sections of the castle you will find yourself outside along a bridge area. You will notice there is a grate on the ground with symbols and numbers next to it. Along the bridge are also braziers.
You simply need to go around interacting with each brazier till the number that is shown on the grate for each image matches. As you interact with the brazier it will rotate.
Once you have them all the grate opens up an underground chamber that runs under the bridge. There are some goodies down below to loot.
Beast Doors
Perhaps one of the more tricky puzzles to work out are these beast doors you will find throughout the castle itself. You will notice in the middle are different beasts being shown and numbers.
You will also find an equal amount of objects you can interact with nearby to how many puzzles you need to solve to unlock the door. In this case, you need to solve and come up with two different numbers that will represent different beats.
Chances are unless you have explored and clicked on everything you can find in the castle. You have not discovered the page that gives away the key to this puzzle. Here it is. It is found near the Divination classroom and there is even a choke board showcasing what it all means.
You can see the numbering system is more in line with how a programmer would do it than how normal people would number something. The good news is if you ever forget you just need to count around each door starting from left to right at 0 going up to 9.
You start by taking the number in the middle. Then you are simply subtracting the two known numbers to get the last number. That last number corresponds to a beast that you then need to set at the nearby locations.
In the first part of the puzzle, we have a base of 13. You then are subtracting 1 from it for 12. You then would look up the value of the spider which is 8 and subtract that from 12. This leaves you with 4 which seems to represent a strange-looking bird resting on a branch.
You then need to go out and find the first beast dice that is marked I and roll it till you get the matching symbol to 4.
In the next part of the puzzle, you are subtracting 13 and the snake (3) from 21 for 5 which represents a crab or whatever that thing is with the five legs.
You then walk over to the second dice (II) on a nearby wall to the puzzle and roll it till you are on the 5th beast.
Once you have solved for both it will unlock the door. The rooms can be the size of a closet or quite massive bigger than a classroom. They can be filled with a couple of chests or many other things.
Pulling And Pushing
While exploring around the castle you might notice some objects appear to have a handle or even a button. Use a pushing or pulling spell depending on the situation and quickly resolve that puzzle.
Not all of these types of puzzles are easy to go in and loot a single chest. Some nasty ones open up a dungeon where you need to solve some of the hardest puzzles in the game itself.
I became rather frustrated with Hall of Herodiana that I did not even bother taking notes on how I solved the puzzle from within side. For those that enjoy that sort of thing, this one is found at the bottom of the Dark Arts Tower if I recall.
Giant Clock Puzzle
Like some of the challenges you will find in the castle you can’t do them till you have unlocked the correct spell. This one for instance requires casting Glacius spell at the correct time.
In the giant clock tower, you will notice on the different floors some doors seem to be bugged out with bars. They also have a symbol above them. Simply freeze the clock pendulum right as it starts to cross over that symbol. That will leave each of the doors open for a short amount of time.
House Cabinets
One of the longer-term things to work on while in the castle is going around collecting coins from the house cabinet. You can only collect your own houses tokens so this means if you want the reward from each house you have to play each of the different classes.
Nearby each House cabinet in the castle will be a key flying around. Chances are you will spot the key before even finding the cabinet. It’s best to follow the key back as best you can so you know where the cabinet is.
Once the key flies to the cabinet you can interest with it. You are more or less trying to slap the key into the keyhole. For my computer, I find it's best to slap the key just before it flies over the keyhole. Depending on your reaction time, gaming setup, and other factors. You will need to work out your timing of when you need to slap that key!
Thankfully if you miss you can keep trying till you get it right. It then opens up the cabinet for you to loot a house token.
Each house token then needs to be brought back to the chest located somewhere in your house tower itself. You will need to collect 16 in total.
Once you do you get the robe corresponding to your house. I happen to be in Gryffindor so that is the one I got. The robes are quite amazing and I find it worth the time to collect all the tokens.
Final Thought
While this covers the basics to a lot of the puzzles and other things. There seems to always be more to do in the castle. I don’t even want to think about how many doors I’ve had to pick or hidden passageways I’ve found just randomly clicking around.
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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Hogwarts Legacy.
