Crossed Wands is Hogwarts’ underground unsanctioned dueling club in Hogwarts Legacy. It also serves as the player’s first actual experience of combat opposing witches or wizards on each side.
This guide will explain the quests related to Crossed Wands. We’ll discuss the duels and how to beat them, alongside basic combat tips.
Before giving any further details, here is a spoilers disclaimer! This article contains spoilers for the early game of Hogwarts Legacy, up to the Crossed Wands. To be clear, nothing further than the Crossed Wands will be mentioned here. So, if that’s where you are, or you don’t mind spoilers until there, you’re in the clear. Otherwise, head back and check out some of our other guides; we’ll see you again on this page another day!
The Cross Wands Club – Location And Explanations
After the first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Sebastian Sallow tells you about a secret, underground dueling club that you could join, given your combat skills.
This club is accessed by talking to Lucan Brattleby, a Gryffindor student located at the entrance leading out to the Clock Tower Courtyard (in the South Wing).
In Crossed Wands, you can do three rounds of duels, and two rounds of combo practice against a target dummy, all five of which have their own quest. Further rounds are unlocked as you get access to new spells.
The first round is available immediately, requiring only Levioso. The second round needs you to have access to both Levioso and Accio, while the third round will add Incendio to the list of requirements.
As for the spell combination practice, the first quest is unlocked alongside Accio, and the second one with Incendio.
Shortly after receiving access to the club (without needing to have previously visited it), Professor Hecat will give you an assignment consisting of two tasks to do before she accepts to teach you Incendio.
These tasks will have you complete the first round of spell combination practice and the second round of duels in this seemingly not-so-secret club. So you’ll have to get there early enough in the story – it is meant to act as a combat tutorial, after all.
The Cross Wands – Duels Tournament
Beating Round 1 of Crossed Wands in Hogwarts Legacy
Round 1 of crossed wands has you pair up with Sebastian against two opponents and will be in most ways similar to the duel against Sebastian from the Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, with the exception that there are two opponents instead of one.
The opponents will activate yellow spell shields. As the tutorial indicates, these shields are broken by using a spell of the matching type and color. Yellow shields get dispelled by Control spells, the yellow ones – that’s Levioso.
In Hogwarts Legacy, blocking or dodging is more important than attacking, especially on hard difficulty. Spells hurt, and momentum matters, particularly when most opponents have long delays between their attacks and when blocking lets you counterstrike.
In a one-on-one fight, as spell combination practice will show, it can be possible to stun-lock the opponent and be under no threat after the first spell you land. But against multiple enemies, the above point means that even while going off with your combo on one target, blocking or dodging an incoming attack takes priority over continuing the combo.
Strategy
Lock onto one target with Caps Lock, use Levioso to break their shield and stun them, and spam Basic Casts until you get targeted.
When the targeted symbol appears on you, hold block to cast Protego and Stupefy.
If you missed the timing, you will get stunned by the enemy spell and will be prompted a specific key to press to break free. The first round of Crossed Wands in Hogwarts Legacy isn’t tough, so it’ll be a good way to get the hang of the Protego timing.
Crossed Wands Round 2
Round 2 of the crossed wands side quest in Hogwarts Legacy now matches you against three opponents, one of which will use a yellow spell shield, while the other two will put on a purple one. Purple shields are broken with Force spells (… purple ones), like Accio.
This time, you get to pick your partner – you can go with Natty, Sebastian, or by yourself. There’s no cost to having one; they do make things a bit easier by giving some back up, but not by much. If you’re looking for an extra challenge, go it alone!
Strategy
There’s really not much of a difference with round 1, except that you need to be aware of which opponent you locked onto, to use the correct spell on their shield. If you picked wrong, either change your lock, or wait out your spell’s cooldown while being on the defensive.
That aside, it’s just a slightly harder version of round 1. It’s still not too tough, and losing just lets you retry immediately.
Crossed Wands Round 3 in Hogwarts Legacy
You can figure out the pattern by now – round 3 matches you against four opponents, with two of them having a shield of the new color (red) and the other two, respectively, having yellow and purple barriers. I’ll let you guess the color of the spell type that’s used to break red shields.
You can, again, go alone or alongside one of the two same acolytes. Doing it alone and without potions makes for a pretty fun challenge. Moreover, you don’t get to participate again once you’ve beaten the quest. So, if you want to give it a go that way, now’s the time!
Strategy to Beating the Third Round of the Duels
This challenge adds two difficulties that make the strategy less simplistic.
First, red barriers are broken with Damage spells, and the only one you can access is Incendio. But Incendio is meant to act like a shotgun – fast spell, high burst, very low range.
So you can only break the red shields by going close to melee range or by using Ancient Magic Throw. You might want to deal with the other two opponents first. Just make sure the red-shielded ones don’t intercept the projectiles as you try to take out their friends.
Second, four opponents are starting to be a lot. Spells will be coming your way frequently, and stun-locking one person still leaves another three targeting you.
Which means:
- Be reactive, and stay alert for when an attack is coming. If you’re too focused on dishing out damage, you might get locked into an attack while a spell comes your way, especially in hard mode, where the block timer is shorter.
- Don’t always try to counterattack at this stage of the Crossed Wands duels in Hogwarts Legacy. Moreover, remain on your toes even right after blocking a spell. At this stage of the challenge, it’s very frequent for two of the opponents to cast a spell on you almost at the same time. And you’re not covered while you’re counter-attacking – what looked like a successful parry can very quickly turn into a game over.
Going at it slowly, methodically, and with patience makes this fight simple as well, in the end. But greed and eagerness are strong fiends.
General Duels Strategy
That third round of the Crossing Wands duels does a good job as a tutorial because the strategy to adopt during it is basically the same as the one to have during all fights of the early stages of the game (so long as you don’t forget to include rolling instead of parrying against unblockable attacks).
One-on-one fights are simple. There isn’t much to focus on. Moreover, you can use clear character cues to detect threats beyond just having the “incoming attack” symbol. Prioritize defenses and weave 3 to 4 basic casts in between every two spells – spells give status ailments more importantly than just damage.
Against multiple enemies, blocking and dodging are even more important. Damage will come out slowly but surely, and it’ll still be faster that way than by having game-overs.
Don’t jump into the middle of the battle so that you can keep your enemies in your line of sight for easier cues. Focus on taking them out one by one. Only counterattack when you actively think you can afford it, and…
If you can learn from my demises, don’t engage an over-leveled miniboss while also putting yourself in attack range of all its ads. (More seriously, try to put yourself in range of as few enemies as possible at a time.)
Final Thoughts on Beating the Crossed Wands Duels in Hogwarts Legacy
That’ll be it for today! We hope this guide has been useful to you and that it either helped you with that quest line or clarified how basic combat in Hogwarts Legacy can be handled efficiently. For players just starting out, the Crossed Wands duels in Hogwarts Legacy can be very challenging.
Do you have any favorite spell combinations, or have you already had any memorable combat experiences in Hogwarts Legacy? Let us know in the comments below!
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