After a handful of guides on how to get out of the bugs you may encounter in Hogwarts Legacy, here is an article on how you can take your revenge and actually break the game yourself!
There are a few ways to get below the map in Hogwarts Legacy. This allows you to use your broom to access areas that would otherwise be locked, cross various terrains, and fly off the map so you can explore this section of the map which is not meant to be in the game.
In this guide, we’ll tell you all about how to go out of bounds and fly below ground in Hogwarts Legacy. Moreover, we’ll show you what you can do there and how it can help with speed runs.
(If you made this happen accidentally and are looking for a way out, we are covering it here – head to the section How to Fix the Game if You’re Falling Through the Ground.)
Spoiler status: This article will contain no spoilers for Hogwarts Legacy until the last section. The last section will contain late-game story spoilers. Thus, make sure to avoid it if you haven’t finished the game and don’t want to get spoiled. There will be a clear warning before reaching this point, though, so don’t worry about unexpectedly running into spoilers.
How To Phase Through The Ground In Hogwarts Legacy
There are a few known ways to get through the ground in Hogwarts Legacy already. While not all of them are consistent, there are two methods that work every time.
1. Jumping into an Unloaded Area
Thanks to my old computer, I found a way to trigger this bug and fly out of bounds in Hogwarts Legacy. Some houses and buildings have their entrance door open slightly before the building is finished loading.
That means that the floor isn’t there, and it is possible to jump into the void through the not-yet-existing ground.
The reliable spot that always works for me is Hogwarts’ entrance.
- Go to a place that isn’t on the Hogwarts side of the map (the castle must not be loaded).
- Open the map and fast travel to the flying class lawn (Hogwarts map > The Bell tower wing > Flying class lawn).
- Walk straight up towards the closest entrance to the castle.
- Open the door and jump forward!
- Open the menu with the plants, potions, and mounts, and go on your broom. And you’re free to go!
Note: This method may or may not work depending on your system’s specifications. This requires a less powerful computer since you want an area to take longer to load. You can always increase your odds by cranking up your game’s settings to the maximum. This will make it run worse (giving that piece of advice is a first for me; I’ll admit).
How to go out of bounds at the Hogwarts entrance:
2. Saving and Reloading in a Corner
This method is a bit more annoying. Yet, it works on any system to let you fly around below ground and out of bounds in Hogwarts Legacy. When loading a save, the game puts the player roughly at the spot where they saved, albeit with some slight inaccuracies.
So, what you want to do is go on your broom and fly into a corner, anywhere (preferably one with irregularly-shaped walls, like rocks).
Then, save the game and load your save. Do that again until any part of your body is clipping through the wall or the ground; it shouldn’t take more than a couple of attempts. It took me three when I recorded the example below.
Once that has been achieved, fly in the direction of the clipping. That should allow you to penetrate further into the wall or ground. Afterward, keep going until you are fully below ground and free to go in any direction.
If the game resists and gives you invisible walls, try changing your direction (up, down, or sideways) or the way you are facing. It may take a couple of seconds of stuttering, but you’ll get there.
The first method has the upside of being very easy and quick to pull off, provided that your computer is, well, not good enough. The second method has the upsides of working everywhere and for everyone, at the cost of being less convenient to achieve.
How to Fly Underground with Corner Reloads in Hogwarts Legacy
How To Fix The Game If You’re Falling Through The Ground
I will write this section in case people end up on this article due to this happening to them unintentionally. If you suddenly start falling through the ground in Hogwarts Legacy, then the minimap, settings, and other menus will not open, meaning there is no possibility of teleporting out of that situation. Moreover, there’s no possibility of reloading a save without exiting the game either.
When you’re falling through the ground, to get out of that situation, mount your broom and fly back up until you’re above ground again.
If you haven’t unlocked flying yet, your only option might be closing the game and reloading to a previous save. From the main menu, instead of simply clicking on your character’s file, select “Load Game” to go back to a save beyond the latest one (the latest auto-save might already be out of bounds, but the game keeps its last five auto-saves at all times).
There isn’t really any known method to avoid the falling-through-the-floor bug in Hogwarts Legacy.
Sometimes, merely jumping toward a wall can make you forget that the floor is solid, sending you on a dive straight into oblivion. And sometimes, it’s loading a save that will take you on the one-way elevator.
But as long as you have unlocked flying and know that the first thing to do when this occurs is to get on your broom and fly back up, this bug is harmless.
Just make sure to be back aboveground before saving again—trying to reload a save that’s out of bounds can give you a never-ending loading screen, and, well…so much for no longer being stuck.
Related Bug Fix Guide: How To Fix The Gladwin Moon Bug In Hogwarts Legacy
Flying Out Of Bounds In Hogwarts Legacy
Now that you have mastered being able to fly below ground and out of bounds in Hogwarts Legacy, what can you do with it? There are three possibilities: navigating underground, going to places you should not be able to go yet, and exploring the area outside the map.
Seeing the entire game from down below
That part gets old pretty quickly. You just get a glitchy view of everything that is above, and you are free to travel everywhere with it.
It’s still a fun experience, though, and traveling underground is the method of out-of-bounds displacement, so you’ll be doing that for all of your out-of-bounds endeavors anyway.
Flying under the ground:
Breaking into locked and inaccessible places
There are no walls under the map, meaning that you can emerge anywhere that is connected to out-of-bounds.
Was there a cave you couldn’t find the entrance to? What are entrances anyway; you can now enter it.
Do you want to see what can be done to access a story-locked area without meeting the story requirements yet? For some select examples, that is totally possible this way. (More on that below, in the spoilers section.)
Were you feeling too lazy to fight in the dungeon or solve its puzzles? You can go back above ground to the final room.
Are you curious about a common room that isn’t your house’s and would like to check it out without creating another character? Well, wouldn’t you know it…
Note: This ability to fly around below the ground in Hogwarts Legacy to speed run has limitations, and it can’t be done for everything.
- The place you want to access must be connected to an out-of-bounds area. That means this works for caves, dungeons, houses, and rooms that are underground or at ground level but usually not for towers (such as in Hogwarts), as flying inside a wall will usually push you out of it back to a place where you should be.
- The place you want to access also needs to be on the map; as far as we currently know, it isn’t possible to access areas that use their own separate map (which a number of dungeons do). Which is a shame; freely flying through Gringotts would have been amazing!
Related Guide: Where To Find Zenobia’s Gobstones In Hogwarts Legacy
Flying beyond the map’s limitations and outside the playable space in Hogwarts Legacy
The playable area of Hogwarts Legacy is quite large; however, it only covers approximately one-quarter of the entire space on the map. So, what lies in that greyed-out area?
Well, now, you can find out – and it’s not just void or a flat surface!
I’m far from having explored everything (I’ve only gone through the northeast corner so far), but from what I have seen thus far, everything has been properly generated.
The supposedly “unplayable” areas have their own distinct landscapes—dunes and mountains, beaches and lakes, trees and forests. Besides being completely unpopulated, the entire area beyond the playable space looks remarkably similar to the rest of the game—surprisingly and impressively so.
One warning, though – this is a one-way ticket.
The invisible walls that prevent the player from going beyond the playable area work in both directions, and since it is impossible to go back below the ground after going above it, there is no way to bypass them for the return trip.
Dismounting is also impossible, so this exploration has to be done only by broom.
Lastly, certain parts of the out-of-bounds area will trigger a message saying “Out of Bounds. Go back!” accompanied by a red flashing screen and a countdown similar to the one appearing when leaving an area allowed by a quest.
Nothing will happen when the timer reaches zero; no game over, and the message will stay and keep blinking. However, the screen will eventually turn fully red and opaque; at that point, you might as well quit and try again from the start.
Exploring Beyond the Limits of the Map
Can You Skip Story Parts With Out Of Bounds Flying In Hogwarts Legacy?
For the short answer: As far as we know, no.
There are a bunch of members of the Hogwarts Legacy speedrunning community–myself included–that have been looking into out-of-bounds flying and what can be done with it, so it is possible for this answer to change someday. Hopefully, yes, and hopefully soon. But as of today, none of us has found a way to make it work.
It is possible to reach some story-locked areas earlier than should be possible. More on that in the spoilers section coming up.
Unfortunately, it appears that the developers in charge of Hogwarts Legacy have built their game well (or rather, relatively well, considering this whole thing is still phasing through the ground and flying under the map), and quest requirements also lock the player out of completing a quest that hasn’t been started yet, not just out of accessing the concerned area.
On the other hand, though, whenever a quest allows you to access an area from which you can dive under the map, you can access the final area of the dungeon without having to solve the puzzles or beat the enemies that should guard the way, provided that said final area connects to the out of bounds.
… Which is a lot of conditions for not much of an outcome achieved. So, the long answer remains more or less no as well.
Now, heads up, the next section contains late-game story spoilers.
Related Article: How To Fix The Trials Of Merlin Bug In Hogwarts Legacy
Examples Of Fun Possibilities And Story Incoherences From Flying Out Of Bounds in Hogwarts Legacy
Warning: This is where the spoilers happen. It’s your cue to leave the article and head back to our guides page if you’re looking to avoid spoilers! This includes late-game story spoilers.
Here’s for two examples of little story things that you can make happen by flying out of bounds or below ground in Hogwarts Legacy.
First, in front of the castle where you rescue Highwing with Natty, you can find one of those goblin drills beneath the ground.
While not so impressive, it’s funny to come across that nonetheless.
Another possibility that is arguably more impressive is that you can access the area with San Bakar’s pensieve without taming the Lord of the Shore, starting the fourth keeper’s trial, or even being anywhere near that point of the story since the area for that pensieve is connected to the main map and can be accessed through out-of-bounds.
However, as hinted above, while the pensieve can be interacted with, doing so won’t result in anything unless the fourth trial was already completed.
Accessing San Bakar’s Pensieve with Out-of-Bounds Flying:
Wrapping Up Our Hogwarts Legacy Flying Below Ground Guide
That’s all that there is to know (and all that is known so far) about how to go out of bounds in Hogwarts Legacy and what to do from there! We hope this was helpful for you, and wish you a fun experience with your game-breaking adventures in the wonderful wizarding world of the Harry Potter universe.
Have you found another way to go out of bounds in Hogwarts Legacy? Have you found out about other cool things you can do there? If so, please let us know in the comments!
