Hogwarts Legacy is great, but if you’re here, you probably already know that. What you may not know is that the game becomes interesting when players gain access to Talents – Hogwarts Legacy’s version of a skill tree – and thankfully, players don’t have to wait long for them to become available.
In a nutshell, Talents are there to upgrade spells, skills, or your student’s stats. While each Talent is helpful in its own way, some offer much more significant benefits; knowing which Talents to choose first can really influence your early game.
First things first, players will unlock the Talent system once they reach the Map Room in the game, and once Talents have been unlocked, players will receive one point each time they level. However, there are more Talents than players will earn points, so players will only be able to unlock some of the Talents in a single playthrough, meaning each choice is essential and needs to be considered carefully to get maximum enjoyment from the system.
Talents are split into five categories: Spells, Dark Arts, Core, Stealth, and Room of Requirement. The spell category allows the player to increase the efficiency of their spells. Dark Arts increases dark magic and will enable players to add dark magic to some of their regular spells. Core contains upgrades for healing, dodging, and basic attack spells. Stealth does what its name implies and improves the player’s stealth spells. The Room of Requirement category enhances the effects of plants and potions.
When deciding which category to dump points into, players will need to consider their playstyle and decide based on that. However, we consider some Talents as must-haves for everyone in the early game, and we’ll run through some of them now.
Firstly, in the Core category, players should prioritise both Wiggenweld Potency and Spell Knowledge, with the first choice coming down to players’ preferences again. Wiggenweld Potency increases the amount of health that healing potions restore throughout the game, while Spell Knowledge allows players to have another set of four spells that they can switch between.
We would also prioritise Spell Knowledge because swapping spells during combat and exploration becomes tedious fast. Players can also unlock multiple tiers of Spell Knowledge. Eventually, this will grant them up to four sets of four spells that can be swapped on the fly.
Another Core recommendation is to put points into Protego Absorption, which will help players to build up their Ancient Magic Meter each time they use Protego to defend – something players will constantly be doing during combat.
Other Talents not mentioned above but that we enjoyed using are:
Spells
Incendio Mastery – Casting Incendio unleashes a ring of flame around you
Confringo Mastery – Confringo impacts produce fiery bolts that seek enemy targets
Diffindo Mastery – Diffindo casts slice through impacted enemies to strike additional targets
Bombarda Mastery – Bombarda causes an explosive blast with a massive area of effect
Transformation Mastery – Enemies struck with the Transformation spell transform into explosive objects
Dark Arts
Stunning Curse – Stupefy has the same effect as a curse on enemies. Cursed enemies take increased damage
Blood Curse – Dealing damage to a cursed target inflicts damage to all cursed targets
Imperio Mastery – An enemy under your control with Imperio curses other targets with each successful strike
Avada Kedavra Mastery – Killing an enemy with Avada Kedavra kills all cursed enemies
Core
Basic Cast Mastery – Basic Cast impacts reduce spell cooldowns
Swift – Holding down Dodge allows you to vanish quickly and reappear nearby
Evasion Absorption – Successfully evading an unblockable attack with Dodge contributes to the Ancient Magic Meter
Protego Mastery – Perfect Protego releases a damaging blast that breaks enemy shields
Human Demiguise – Allows you to Sprint while using Disillusionment
Room of Requirement
Edurus Potion Potency – Edurus Potion makes you invulnerable and deflects projectile attacks back to enemies
Fertiliser – For each Chinese Chomping Cabbage thrown, a second Chomping Cabbage is generated and released at no cost
Maxima Potion Potency – Maxima Potion causes attacks to have additional increased damage and break enemy shields
Headache – The damage and duration of the incapacitating effect of Mandrakes are increased
Noxious – Venomous Tentacula attacks deal additional damage and break shields
