Want to know how to learn the Hogwarts Legacy unforgivable curses? You can go through the entirety of your wizarding adventure without learning how to cast any of these special curses, so you need to know which quest line to prioritise if you want to become a dark witch or wizard.
Unlike some RPG games, you don’t have to worry about anyone judging you for using unforgivable curses because Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t have a morality meter. This means you’re able to cast these Hogwarts Legacy spells without being called out by your fellow students, but you have to live with the knowledge that you’re using dangerous and evil magic. If that doesn’t bother you, here’s what you need to do to unlock Crucio, Imperio, and Avada Kedavra.
How to learn the unforgivable curses in Hogwarts Legacy
To gain access to the unforgivable curses, you need to start speaking to Sebastian Sallow, a Slytherin student who happens to be one of the main Hogwarts Legacy characters. Sebastian’s sister has been left permanently scared by an unforgivable curse, causing him to learn more about the dark arts in hopes he can reverse the curse’s effect on her.
You can join him on this journey by starting the ‘In the Shadow’ series of quests. Keep in mind that you must have the Wingardium Leviosa spell and be level 16 or higher to activate this quest chain.
The Hogwarts Legacy In the Shadow questline is split into five parts:
- In the Shadow of the Bloodline
- In the Shadow of the Study
- In the Shadow of Discovery
- In the Shadow of Time
- In the Shadow of the Relic
The first four quests can be completed within a few in-game days of each other, but the final quest won’t be available until you’re near the end of the game. If you aren’t sure how far that is, you can take a look at our how long is Hogwarts Legacy guide. In the Shadow of the Relic requires players to be level 28 before they can accept the quest.
What do the Hogwarts Legacy unforgivable curses do?
There are only three unforgivable curses in Hogwarts Legacy, however, you can utilise the Hogwarts Legacy talents to turn some of your normal spells into curses. With the right set of talents, you can curse multiple enemies at once and gain huge advantages. For example, cursed enemies take increased damage and you can even gain health after defeating a cursed enemy.
Here are the three unforgivable curses in Hogwarts Legacy:
The Cruciatus Curse (Crucio)
Crucio temporarily stuns an enemy and deals small bursts of damage over time. You need to wait 15 seconds for Crucio’s cooldown to end.
The Imperius Curse (Imperio)
Imperio allows the caster to force an enemy to fight against their team. When combined with the talents, Imperio Mastery and Avada Kedavra Mastery, you can take out multiple enemies in a matter of seconds. The cooldown for Imperio lasts 30 seconds.
The Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra)
The most unforgivable curse there is, Avada Kedavra gives you the power to instantly kill an enemy. This curse comes with a 90-second cooldown, so think carefully about which enemy you want to take down.
How to unlock Crucio in Hogwarts Legacy
This curse can be unlocked during the In the Shadow of the Study quest which takes place in the Slytherin Hogwarts Legacy common room. This quest is fairly straightforward, though you need to use Incendio to light up some braziers and Reparo to gain access to a new path. There are some gates featuring two cylinders with symbols on them, you need to match the symbols with the ones that appear in a different room. If you take too long to match the symbols, the snake in the statue leaps at you, dealing a considerable amount of damage.
Sebastian asks you whether you want to learn Crucio, presenting you with three options. You can refuse to learn the curse, learn the curse and have Sebastian cast it on you, or learn the curse and cast it on Sebastian. Either of the last two options gives you access to the curse, it doesn’t matter who gets hurt by the Crucio curse.
How to unlock Imperio in Hogwarts Legacy
In the Shadow of Time begins in the catacomb located in Feldcroft Region – check out our Hogwarts Legacy Floo Flames locations guide to find out exactly where this is.
You’re going to need Incendio yet again, this time to burn some spiderwebs blocking the path. You also need to use Wingardium Leviosa to move piles of old human bones – who knew the path of the dark wizard would be so icky? Once you find the relic you’re searching for, you earn the ability to learn Imperio. Just like with Crucio, you don’t have to learn this spell, but we can’t imagine you’ve come all this way to turn it down.
How to unlock Avada Kedavra in Hogwarts Legacy
Begin the In the Shadow of the Relic quest and meet Ominis at the same catacomb where you learned Imperio. You won’t need to do any puzzle-solving this time around, simply talk to Sebastian and ask him to teach you the curse.
That’s everything you need to unlock the unforgivable curses in Hogwarts Legacy. If you want to learn Avada Kedavra as soon as you possibly can, we recommend finding all of the Hogwarts Legacy field guide pages flying around the map. As you progress through the open-world game, you should keep an eye on your Hogwarts Legacy challenges to see which items you’ve unlocked. Lastly, give our best PC games list a read to find some of the greatest titles gaming has to offer.
The creator of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, has made a number of transphobic remarks on social media in recent years. Warner Bros. has the licence to make games based on Harry Potter. While the details of that deal aren’t publicly known, and WB Games says “J.K. Rowling is not directly involved in the creation of the game”, it is likely that, as the creator and owner of the Harry Potter IP, she will earn royalties from its sales. If you’d like to learn more about transgender equality or lend your support, here are two important charities we encourage you to check out: the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, and Mermaids in the UK.