Hogwarts Legacy is finally here and it's blinking massive. The third-person action RPG is set across a huge open world map, including Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and the surrounding countryside so there's plenty to explore and find.

In addition, your character will soon be inundated with spells to cast in combat, pockets full of potions, and enemies who want to turn you into dust, so where do you start? Considering its size and the amount to see and do, what should you do first?

We explain all in our handy tips and tricks guide for beginners.

Create a character

In Hogwarts Legacy, you play as a fifth year student, so a bit more mature than Harry Potter when he first started at the school. That means you'll soon be able to cast more advanced spells and accumulate new abilities. However, the first thing to worry about is how your character looks and sounds.

The creation tools are all pretty self-explanatory, but one thing to note is that you can change your hairstyle later in the game (at the hairdressers in Hogsmeade) but not your overall facial look - so choose wisely.

Sorting Hat house selection

One of the first things you do when arriving at Hogwarts is get to sit in the chair with the sorting hat on your noggin'. This will determine the house you'll play the entire adventure in - Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. The hat will ask you a couple of questions and, depending on your answers, you will be assigned a house.

You can go ahead with its choice or change it to another should you choose, so the game is fairly flexible. Note though, you can't change it again after this section of the game.

Your chosen house will mainly determine which house common room you have access to, plus the colour schemes of much of the clothing items you find and acquire.

Vital spells to use often

You will learn new spells for the first 12 or so hours you play the game, mostly from the different teachers and professors at the school. However, you start with a couple of essential spells - a basic cast that can damage enemies and Revelio, a spell that reveals items of interest in the local area, as well as enemies and objects you can interact with.

This latter spell is hugely important throughout the game and can be case by tapping the D-Pad to the left. As resources and chests are vital to your progression, it helps by highlighting those closest to you. Plus, any other collectibles or side quest items will glow if they are nearby. We suggest using Revelio often.

Collecting Field Guide pages

Soon after you start, you will be handed a field guide that helps you find out more about the world in Hogwarts Legacy and tracks your inventory, collectibles and much more. Another great use for the Revelio spell (as above) is to find Field Guide pages, which can often be revealed in front of landmarks and interesting items in Hogwarts - such as statues and doorways. Cast Revelio near them and a Field Guide page will appear - collect it and, when enough are acquired, you are rewarded with new looks for clothing, wand handles, and much more.

Field Guide pages can also be found flapping around overhead in and out of Hogwarts - use the Accio spell (once learned) to pull them to you.

Improving your defence and offence

You will gain hit points as your character levels up (through earning XP in missions or general tasks). However, offensive and defensive statistics can only be improved through the use of gear - clothing and accessories that can be found or bought around the vast game world.

Different items have different scores that add to either defence or offence, so you can chop and change as you go.

One word of warning though, items also have a visual effect on your character, so to get the best stats, you might have to forego sensible fashion. We found that we liked to wear Hogwarts uniform when attending classes, etc, but switched to the more ludicrous, more powerful clothing when we were about to go into battle.

Travel more quickly

There are multiple ways to travel around the castle and surrounding areas. You start out having to run around on foot but soon learn how to fast travel through the Floo Network. This uses mutiple Floo locations across the entire map that allow you to instantly appear at each spot, once it has been unlocked by visiting it for the first time. We found that it was worth the time visiting as many as possible initially (they are marked in white on the various maps when locked, green when available), as you don't know where a mission will take you. That way you can go to the location again more quickly later.

In addition, you will also unlock broom flight later in the game (after taking the requisite class and buying a broom from Spintwitches Sporting Needs in Hogsmeade). This allows you to travel across the map outside of Hogwarts far more quickly than on foot.

Once you have your broom, just press the L1 button and the O button on a PlayStation controller or B button on Xbox.

Always carry potions and plants

Resource collection and crafting is essential to survive in Hogwarts Legacy as many of the potions and more aggressive plantlife can be used in battles. The most vital potion, we have found, will be Wiggenweld as it heals you in battle. Make sure you have plenty of them before heading into ancient magic missions - the boss battles in the game can be tricky without them.

You'll know when a hard fight or boss battle is coming up as you'll find a chest containing Wiggenweld potions just beforehand.

We also found Chinese Chomping Cabbages to be particularly useful for battles as they automatically attack your enemies when thrown at them. You can only equip one helpful plant or potion at a time (apart from Wiggenweld), so practice using the L1 selection wheel as you'll undoubtedly want to quickly switch during combat.

Puzzle finding

There are puzzles galore throughout the game - some in missions (side and main), others just lurking around to reward you with items or character expansions. The Merlin trials will expand the amount of gear you can carry, for example. These are dotted around the countryside and, once you've completed a set number, your carry limit will increase.

The best way to spot puzzles is through the Revelio spell as detailed above. Cast it and an object you can interact with will glow, either white or blue. That way you know that you can do something at that location.

Room of Requirement

Around 10 or so hours into the game, you will be able to unlock the Room of Requirement. This is a customisable room especially for you that you can use to create potions and grow plants that will help you along the way. You previously have to do so in their respective classrooms.

The room can also be used to identify gear items that you find, and even later in the game still, keep interesting beasts you find - much like Newt Scamander.

More to come

Hopefully, these tips for beginners will help you start out in the world of Hogwarts Legacy. We'll add more in time, but these should aid you as you start the game. We will advise exploration, as that's the main element to this superb action RPG and we've tried to avoid too many spoilers to encourage you to find most of its magical secrets on your own.

Hogwarts Legacy is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC - first in early access for those who pre-ordered it and on 10 February for everyone else.

It will also be released for PS4 and Xbox One on 4 April 2023, and Nintendo Switch on 25 July.

You might also want to prepare by watching the entire Harry Potter movie series in the meantime.