Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy

Developers
	Avalanche Software
Publishers
	Warner Bros. Games
	Portkey Games
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4
Release dates
Windows	February 10, 2023
Reception
Metacritic	83
OpenCritic	84
IGDB	86
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, RPG
Vehicles	Flight
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Dark, Fantasy, Europe, Victorian
Series	Harry Potter

Hogwarts Legacy is an action RPG developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Games under the Portkey Games publishing label. The game is set in the overarching world created for the Harry Potter series.

Initially leaked online as early as 2018, Hogwarts Legacy was officially announced in 2020 for an eventual release date of February 10, 2023, following delays, on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. Digital Deluxe Edition owners of the game were given access to the game earlier, giving them access to the game three days before the release date.

Following its release, the game was praised for its content by critics and fans alike, but had criticism drawn towards the stuttering and overall performance issues exhibited by the launch version of the game. In January, the developers announced that the game will receive an update in Summer 2024 that will add the PlayStation exclusive quest alongside other changes and improvements.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Official Discord server

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Epic Games Store		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
GamersGate		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
Green Man Gaming		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
Humble Store		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
Steam		Digital Deluxe Edition also available.

All versions require Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.

Version differences

The Digital Deluxe Edition includes three days early access to the game, a Thestral Mount and the Dark Arts Pack downloadable content.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	The Dark Arts Pack included with the Digital Deluxe Edition can be purchased separately.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Dark Arts Pack	Includes access to the Thestral Mount, the Dark Arts Cosmetic Set and the Dark Arts Battle Arena.
Onyx Hippogriff Mount	Pre-purchase entitlement.
House Fan-atic School Robe and Beaked Skull Mask	Obtained by users by linking their Harry Potter Fan Club and WB Games accounts.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
No microtransactions	Developers have explicitly stated that the game will not feature any microtransactions.

Cosmetic bonuses can be claimed by watching Hogwarts Legacy streams with a linked Twitch account.

The Merlin's Cloak cosmetic can be obtained by watching developer streams with a linked Twitch account.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Hogwarts Legacy\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor %LOCALAPPDATA%\Hogwarts\Saved\Config\WindowNoEditor<user-id>
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/990080/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Hogwarts Legacy\Saved\SaveGames\<user-id> %LOCALAPPDATA%\Hogwarts\Saved\SaveGames\<user-id>
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/990080/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Steam Cloud		Saves and input settings.

Video

Display settings

Graphics settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Use HogwartsLegacyFix to fix pillarboxing in cutscenes.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Adjustable between -20 and +20, see Field of view (FOV) to increase.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Named Windowed fullscreen. There is no Exclusive Fullscreen option.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Quality is tied to Texture Quality (2x for Low, 4x for Medium and 8x for High and Ultra).
Anti-aliasing (AA)		TAA (Low and High) and DLAA. No option is present to disable anti aliasing.
High-fidelity upscaling		FSR 1.0, FSR 2.2, XeSS 1.1, DLSS 3.1, NIS DLSS Frame Generation is supported. Both DLSS and FSR have sharpness sliders.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Can be capped up to 360 frames per second.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Ray tracing (RT)		Ray traced shadows, reflections and ambient occlusion. Each setting can be toggled individually alongside a global Ray Tracing Quality setting. See Ray tracing to further improve quality.
Color blind mode		Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia modes for most UI and HUD elements only.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.

The game includes a benchmarking feature that calculates recommended settings for the current system, rather than a standard performance benchmark.

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  User Interface settings

Field of view (FOV)

High values may cause visual bugs in the sky.

Change the value in the config file.
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open GameUserSettings.ini. Locate the CameraSettings Change the value of FieldOfViewOffset to desired amount.

Ray tracing

Improve quality of ray traced reflections

By default, the resolution of the ray traced reflections in the game are set to 40% of the screen resolution, leading to blurry visuals on mirrored surfaces. Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Engine.ini. Create the section [SystemSettings] at the bottom of the file, if it does not already exist. Add the following lines to the section: r.RayTracing.Reflections.ScreenPercentage=100 r.RayTracing.Reflections.ReflectionCaptures=1 Save and close the file.

Input

Gameplay settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Binding a non-US layout key to an action that appears on the HUD causes a [KEYBOARD_UNKNOWNCHARCODE_*] message to be displayed in place of the key, deforming the HUD. Secondary key bindings can be toggled to display instead of the primary bindings.
Mouse acceleration		It can be disabled in-game, which sets it to a tiny number in GameUserSettings.ini, or through the GameUserSettings.ini in the Configuration file(s) location.
Mouse sensitivity		Sensitivity of cursor, aiming and camera can be separately adjusted.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Broom flight controls and Camera X-axis can be also separately inverted.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity		Sensitivity of cursor, aiming and camera can be separately adjusted.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Broom flight controls and Camera X-axis can be also separately inverted.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers		Nintendo Switch Pro Controller natively supported via Steam Input.
Button prompts		Requires Steam Input to be enabled. Some buttons are misconfigured (swapped B/A inputs on A/B prompts for spell casting, and swapped A/B and X/Y buttons when selecting the spells)

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

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  Key bindings (1 of 3)

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  Key bindings (2 of 3)

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  Key bindings (3 of 3)

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Separate options to adjust volume for music, sound effects and dialogue, and a toggle to mute all sound.
Surround sound		Dolby Atmos supported.
Subtitles		Size scales with UI text adjustments.
Closed captions		No standard closed captioning, however an Audio Visualiser can be found in the Accessibility settings.
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

• 

  Accessibility settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Arabic
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Hungarian				A fan translation is available at Magyarítások Portál
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian				Fan voice-over by GamesVoice.
Spanish
Latin American Spanish

Issues unresolved

Stuttering and low performance

The game appears to exhibit performance issues, most notably stuttering, regardless of the hardware in use.

Set the VRAM limit manually

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open Engine.ini. Create the section [SystemSettings] at the bottom of the file, if it does not already exist. Add r.Streaming.PoolSize= to the section. Add whichever value is lower from the following to the same line: the value of half the GPU memory in megabytes (e.g. an 8 GB GPU has 8192 megabytes of RAM, therefore the value to enter would be 4096). 6144 if the GPU memory is 12 GB or higher. Save and close the file.

Replace Razer Chroma library file with an empty one[citation needed]
Download the EMPTY mod. Unpack the archive, and place the CChromaEditorLibrary64.dll in <path-to-game>/Phoenix/Plugins/ChromaSDKPlugin/Binaries/Win64, overwrite files when prompted to do so.

Issues fixed

Controller rumble not working

Clear pc_info.json[citation needed]
Make sure the game is not running. Delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\Hogwarts Legacy\Saved\pc_info.json Restart the game.

Protagonist's voice sounds robotic

Reset the Pitch slider in the audio settings to the default value

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		User Profile, see vorpx forum for introduction

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Wwise, XAudio	XAudio 2.9
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-6600 AMD Ryzen 5 1400	Intel Core i7-8700 AMD Ryzen 5 3600
System memory (RAM)	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	85 GB (HDD)	85 GB (SSD)
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 AMD Radeon RX 470 4 GB of VRAM DirectX 12 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT Intel Arc A770

A 64-bit operating system is required.

The game will run on Intel Core 2 processors, despite the minimum requirements.

The minimum requirements are for 720p at 30 FPS with Low quality settings, while the recommended requirements are for 1080p at 60 FPS with High quality settings. Additional system requirements for higher end systems are also available.