The best part of playing a game – any game – on PC is having access to community-made mods (as long as those games support mods, at least), and from major improvements and additions to minor alterations and fixes, mods tend to elevate games in a number of ways. Hogwarts Legacy is barely a few days old at this point, which means we’re not yet at the point where there are a ton of large-scale mods for it out there- though there surely are plenty available that improve the experience in smaller but noticeable ways. Here are a few such mods that, if you’re playing the game on PC, you should definitely look into.
ASCENDIO MOD
Like virtually every massive open world RPG ever made, Hogwarts Legacy is not without its fair share of technical issues. Developer Avalanche Software has started the process of ironing these out with post-launch patches, but until such time the game’s official build gets up to the expected level of quality, there are mods that you can download to help improve things. For instance, the “Ascendio” mod made by Nexusmods user Seifunaru makes noticeable improvements to Hogwarts Legacy’s stuttering issues and frame rate drops. Said issues aren’t completely eliminated, but things definitely do get better, especially if you play with ray tracing turned off.
MOUSE CONTROLS FOR BROOM
If you’re playing Hogwarts Legacy on PC, its broom flight controls may not be to your liking, seeing as pretty much everything other than camera rotation is controlled using the keyboard. For those looking for a fix that adds the option to control broom flight using your mouse, look no further than Nexusmods user r457’s “Mouse Controls for Broom” mod. As its name suggests, in addition to camera rotation, the mod will also let you control your broom’s ascent and descent with the mouse, with both regular and inverted options available.
NIMBUS 2000 BROOM MOD
Hogwarts Legacy has over a dozen brooms available for players to choose between, but fans of the Harry Potter movies and books will have noticed that a couple of key models are missing. The “Nimbus 2000 Broom” mod by user norskpl adds one of them into the game, replacing the Yew Weaver with the titular broom, which was used by Harry Potter for his first three years at Hogwarts. Differences between broomsticks in the game are purely cosmetic, of course, so don’t expect flight on the Nimbus 2000 to be any different- but its model is a faithful recreation that fans of the movies are sure to enjoy.
SMALLER UI
While they’re not necessarily a must-have in any game, customization options for the UI and its individual elements are always hugely appreciated, especially in games that are as UI heavy as RPGs like Hogwarts Legacy tend to be. While the game doesn’t have a lot of these options natively, community-driven mods can thankfully pick up some of that slack. The “Smaller UI” mod by Nexusmods user r457, for instance, does exactly what its name suggests, making all elements of the in-game UI – including the HUD and all the menus – smaller and a little less aggressive.
CRYSTAL CLEAR MINIMAP
If you’re looking to make yet more improvements to Hogwarts Legacy’s UI, considering looking into user S1yRuleZ’s “Crystal Clear Minimap” mod. This one is a fairly incremental upgrade, all things considered, seeing as its sole purpose is to improve the image quality of the minimap (and nothing else), but if the low quality look of the game’s minimap does bug you, this mod makes considerable improvements. Tiles displayed on the minimap showcase anywhere between 2x and 8x improvements in clarity.
ARACHNOPHOBIA MOD
Hogwarts Legacy will see you taking on giant, terrifying spiders quite often throughout its runtime, and fear of spiders is something that isn’t exactly uncommon in people, even if the degree varies. If running into these nightmarish eight-legged monstrosities is something you’d rather not do, norskpl’s “Arachnophobia” mod is an easy recommendation for you. It essentially replaces all spiders in Hogwarts Legacy with simple, textureless boxes. Sure, those boxes still move around and attack like spiders, but at least they don’t look like spiders anymore.
INSTANT SPELL SWITCHING
Hogwarts Legacy’s combat is one of its biggest strengths, but it does have a few issues that players have brought up frequently. One in particular that has bugged many is only having access to four spells at any given time, forcing you to switch between four different spell sets in the midst of combat, which can feel a little clunky. Nexusmods user Micchannn’s “Instant Spell Switching” mod, however, makes a neat fix to that, allowing you to rebind keys and essentially have access to all sixteen of your active spells at once. You do need a mouse with two extra buttons to have full access to all four spell sets, but it makes noticeable improvements to the flow of combat.
GAME PAUSER
It’s always annoying when games don’t allow you to pause in the middle of cutscenes, and Hogwarts Legacy, unfortunately enough, has that issue as well. Hopefully it’s an option that Avalanche Software will add into the game with a post-launch patch in the near future, but until then, Nexusmods user YouYouTheBoxx’s “Game Pauser” mod seems to have you covered. Its implementation is not perfect – for instance, when you pause in the middle of a cutscene, the speaking character will still finish their line before the game is paused – but ultimately, it does what it needs to do.
UNEQUIP WAND
This one is a pretty minor addition, but one that a fair few players will likely appreciate. Currently, Hogwarts Legacy has no command for “holstering” your wand, so to speak, after you’ve whipped it out. You just have to wait until your player character does that automatically. With user nathdev’s “Unequip Wand” mod, however, you can sheath your wand whenever you want with a simple press of a button. Similarly, the mod also lets you toggle your hood on and off in the middle of gameplay with a single button press.
MAGIC GUN
One would argue that the whole point of Hogwarts Legacy as a game is to let your use your wand like a witch or a wizard to your heart’s content, but if you fancy yourself an agent of chaos and want to inject some bizarreness into the game, Nexusmods user atomzx’s “Magic Gun” mod may very well be to your liking. As its name suggests, it replaces your wand with a gun. In practice, it continues to work the way your wand would, but it sure looks like you’re shooting magical spells out of a gun. If you’ve always wanted to run around Hogwarts Castle while waving a pistol in the air like a maniac (for whatever reason)- well, now’s your chance to do just that.
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