Hogwarts Legacy is based on the Wizarding World universe created by J.K. Rowling. You can read more about Rowling’s history of transphobic remarks as well as find resources to support LGBTQ organizations here.
Hogwarts Legacy is actually a bit more of a Zelda-like adventure game than you may expect, which means that the game is filled with puzzles. Most of those puzzles are fairly easy to navigate, but the “puzzle doors” players encounter early and often are already confusing quite a few players.
To be fair, those doors are some of the most confusing puzzles in the game by some distance. Long after you’ve loved Hogwarts’ most ancient mysteries, you’ll probably be left staring at these doors filled with numbers and animal symbols without a clue of what you’re supposed to do about them.
As it turns out, though, the hardest thing about those puzzle doors is understanding how you’re supposed to interact with them and what they’re actually asking of you. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how you’re supposed to open these puzzling doors.
Hogwarts Legacy: How to Open the Puzzle Doors
Just so everyone is on the same page, here’s a look at the doors I mean when I say “Puzzle Doors:”
You’ll encounter many of these doors throughout the game. While each is slightly different, they all sport a few key features. Namely, each reveals two triangle-and-circle diagrams when you interact with them, each includes a few seemingly random numbers, and each is surrounded by some pictures of various animals/creatures. They are also flanked by two circular “switches” that allow you to choose between the same creature portraits seen on the doors.
You may think that you need to somehow match those symbols on the walls to the symbols on the diagrams, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Actually, these doors are essentially elaborate math puzzles.
To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, here’s an example of one of the puzzle doors you’ll run into in the game.
What you’re basically trying to do is find which number needs to go into the “?” and “??” spots in order to make the numbers in the outer circle add up to the number in the inner circle. So, for the bottom diagram, we see 0, 1, ??, and a 4 in the middle. Essentially, ?? is the number that will allow the numbers on the outside to add up to the middle number. In that instance, ?? is “3.”
Here’s where things get tricky. While you’d think that you just need to swap the nearby ?? switch to a 3, you’ll notice that those switches only allow you to swap between the pictures of creatures you see around the door. Similarly, you’ll notice that the diagram on top features a picture of a snake rather than a number. As you probably guessed, those creatures are meant to represent numbers.
There are a few ways to figure out which number which creature represents. Ideally, you’ll find this handy cheat sheet near the Arithmancy Classroom that tells you which number each design represents. Some of the designs also clearly represent a certain number (one horn on the unicorn, eight legs on the spider, etc.), though relying on visual cues alone soon gets confusing.
Alternatively, you can simply take a look at the order of how the designs are arranged around the puzzle frame. The design in the very bottom left of the frame is “0.” The design in the bottom right of the frame is “9.” The other designs represent the missing numbers in clockwork order.
If you’d rather not bother with all of that, here’s a breakdown of what each design is meant to represent:
0 – Owl (?)
1 – Unicorn
2 – Goat
3 – Snake
4 – Perched Animal
5 – Headcrab (?)
6 – Lizard
7 – Squid
8 – Spider
9 – Hydra
So, for the puzzle pictured above, you’d need to flip the “?” switch so that it shows the Perched Creature (which represents “4”). Meanwhile, the “??” switch would need to be flipped to the Snake (which represents “3”).
Once you get a feel for what number each symbol represents, it’s significantly easier to solve those puzzles. From there, it’s really just a matter of finding the nearby switches and making sure they correspond to the correct symbols.
Hogwarts Legacy: Every Puzzle Door Solution
Would you really rather just not bother with any of the information included above? Fair enough. Here’s the solution to every Puzzle Door in Hogwarts Legacy:
Central Hall
? – Spider
?? – Hyrdra
Central Hall (Rafters)
? – Perched Creature
?? – Snake
Arithmancy Classroom (Left Door)
? – Perched Creature
?? – Headcrab
Arithmancy Classroom (Right Door)
? – Lizard
?? – Unicorn
Long Gallery
? – Goat
?? – Unicorn
Charms
? – Goat
?? – Squid
Outside Ravenclaw Common Room
? – Perched Animal
?? – Headcrab
Grand Staircase
? – Lizard
?? – Squid
House Points Hourglasses
? – Owl
?? – Headcrab
Faculty Tower
? – Perched Animal
?? – Hydra
Great Hall
? – Spider
?? – Snake