The wizarding world of Harry Potter is alive with all manner of fantastical creatures and monstrosities. In Hogwarts Legacy, the central antagonists are a band of invading goblins, but the game’s boss battles split between main quests and side missions are made up trolls, mythical beasts, and powerful witches and wizards. Each boss is an opportunity for any budding witch or wizard to test out the game’s cast magic combo system, with mastery of a blend of spell types required to defeat even seemingly the easiest enemy.
Armoured Troll
The armoured troll of Hogsmeade is the first boss encountered in Hogwarts Legacy, and with its powerful, swinging reach and armoured shell seemingly impervious to magic, it represents the first true test of our player’s fledgling wizarding skills. Firstly, there’s going to be many occasions when dodging is the only strategy to avoiding a bludgeoning; thankfully, these unblockable troll attacks are telegraphed by a red vigil above the player. See red, dive out the way. See orange though, and these attacks can be blocked and parried via the Protego protection spell, knocking the troll off balance, and opening up for a counter. The key to defeating this monster though is by utilising ancient magic, flinging barrels and the like take chunks off the armoured troll’s health.
Pensieve Guardian
The Pensieve Guardian is a ginormous hulk of shockwave hurling armour which, if not careful, can knock vital HP out of even the most adept wizard. The red vigil again telegraphs the boss’ unblockable attacks, with a simple dodge not enough to see this one through once the Pensieve Guardian falls below 50% health; it’s shockwave launches a seeking missile which must be blocked and deflected back. Crucial to defeating the Pensieve Guardian quicksmart is via matching spell attacks to the colour of its glowing orbs – for a yellow orb, hit it with a control spell like Glacius, for purple use force spells like Flipendo, and so on.
Graphorn
These mountain dwelling beasts love a charge attack. Led by their protruding sharp horns, the only real defence to a rapidly charging Graphorn is to get the hell out of the way. Due to their tough exterior, Graphorns can absorb a lot of magic damage too, making the encounter with the Graphorn all the more memorable. Despite their inherent aggression, witches and wizards have been known to befriend them. Tackle this Graphorn with a combination of ancient magic and damage spells to reduce its health to zero. The Graphorn will launch one final charge before the player has the choice to attack or kneel before it. Whichever the player chooses, the outcome is the same – this Graphorn becomes mountable, the only difference is the cutscene.
Victor Rookwood
The sharply dressed, top hat adorning dark wizard of Hogwarts Legacy meets his end during the wand mastery quest. Alongside goblin leader Ranrok, Victor Rookwood represents one of the game’s main antagonists, appearing for the last time outside the Ollivander’s Wand Shop before whisking our wizard protagonist away to a dark arena and surrounding them with Ashwinder henchmen. Defeating the onslaught of Ashwinder Executioners, Poacher Stalkers and the like requires ample application of spell combos and ancient magic before Rookwood finally emerges from the sidelines. His last stand, an Avada Kedavra killing curse can be countered by spamming the appropriate controller button.
Theophilus Harlow
Victor Rookwood’s right-hand man Theophilus Harlow represents one of Hogwarts Legacy’s side quest bosses, with this arrogant and cruel man being encountered during the Harlow’s last stand quest. He’s a tricky boss to eliminate – spamming him with magic attacks causes him to immediately teleport. If spamming’s the tactic, then it’s essential Harlow is immobilised with control spells like Arresto Momentum or Levioso but unleashing from a barrage of cast spells. And, like Rookwood, Theophilus Harlow sees fit to hide behind Ashwinder henchmen too, although these don’t need to be dealt with in order to eventually defeat Harlow.
The Absconder
Another side quest boss, The Absconder takes the form of a giant spider and is one of the most difficult bosses throughout the entirety of Hogwarts Legacy, requiring at least a wizard raised to level 30 before taking on. It’s easy for The Absconder to overwhelm too, with its ability to spawn smaller – but still pretty fearsome – spiders whilst launching its unblockable fang-first attacks. Keeping distance is key to overcoming this eight-legged monstrosity, with The Absconder itself particularly vulnerable to the Incendio fire spell. Incendio is needed to burn the webs blocking entry it’s lair, so any witch or wizard brave enough to take this giant spider on should already have it equipped.
Solomon Sallow
Former auror to the British Ministry of Magic, Solomon Sallow was in care of his niece and nephew Anne and Sebastian when his home was raided by Hogwarts Legacy’s goblin leader antagonist Ranrok, cursing his niece to eternal ill health. Sebastian meanwhile succumbed to dark magic, cutting Sallow into the forlorn figure encountered during the in the shadow of the relic side quest. Battling Solomon isn’t too trying an affair; plus, the surrounding Inferi can be used to attack Solomon too. Just use Protego at the most opportune time when the Inferi attack to unload stupefy and deflect Sallow’s attacks back at him.
Mountain Troll
There are different kind of Trolls in Hogwarts Legacy such as the aforementioned Armoured Troll. However, the Mountain Troll had a couple of neat tricks up its sleeve thanks to the variety of attacks in its arsenal. A suitably levelled up character is essential as the Mountain Troll will take plenty of hits before it is taken down. Best tactic is to block or dodge its attacks, and taking care of the spiders that act like his minions. This Troll will continuously keep you on your toes so ensure you are continuously spamming out your best spell combos.
Ranrok Dragon
This is it, Hogwarts Legacy’s final boss, a dragon conjured by goblin leader Ranrok, and it’s a dangerous affair with the dragon’s explosion attack unleashed in the battle’s second phase capable of one-shot KO’ing any witch or wizard unable to get out of its way. The Ranrok Dragon has plenty of unblocked attacks in its arsenal so the player will spend plenty of time dodging, which is just as well as the dragon can’t be attacked until its health bar appears on screen. Hitting the different coloured orbs floating above with the corresponding magic spell colour will reveal this, with the necessity to dodge an onslaught of unblockable attacks becoming more desperate as the fight rages on.
Fastidio
Entering the Fastidio’s playground and fighting him plays out more akin to a boss rush mode than actually fighting Fastidio itself. Only here, the boss which is not really Fastidio himself but his Monster is much more powerful, with ability to dish out destructive, dangerous attacks which dole out damage far superior to normal enemies. A liberal application of Incendio’s area of effect attacks is most useful to deal with the surrounding enemies the mech throws at you. During the latter half of the boss fight, the game inverts the screen thereby increasing the boss’ difficulty level.
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