Following your second visit to the Map Chamber, this time accompanied by Professor Fig, your conversation with the former Hogwarts Headmaster, Percival Rackham leads to the beginning of his first trial.
To complete this trial, you have to make your way to the tower indicated in the Map Chamber, accompanied again by Professor Fig.
The trial itself consists of a few fairly complex puzzles followed by a boss fight that might be easy or tough depending on the level of difficulty you’re playing on.
This guide will walk you through completing Percival Rackham’s first trial in Hogwarts Legacy, so let’s get right into it.
Arriving at the Tower
On your way to the tower, you might encounter a few enemies – poachers, in particular. It might be worth dueling these enemies to tick some dueling challenges off your list, but you can also choose to avoid them altogether.
Upon arrival at the tower itself, you will meet Professor Fig who informs you that there are goblins at the location. The main quest is inside the tower, but you cannot go into the entrance until you defeat the goblins.
I made light work of the initial round of goblins stealthily with a disillusionment spell and Petrificus Totalus, but the entrance remained closed until I discovered a letter from the boss of the goblins, Ranrok, in one of the small buildings around the tower.
After reading the letter, more goblins appeared. I defeated them as well, and then the entrance became accessible.
Rackham’s Secret Entrance
Inside the tower, you’ll find another frame upstairs with Percival Rackham waiting to dish out further instructions. Acting upon his instructions, make your way to the secret entrance on the bottom floor of the tower.
Inside, there’s a bridge that is not immediately obvious. You have to go down the steps to investigate, and then come back up to make the bridge appear. Take note of this as it will be a recurrent theme throughout the trial.
The next room contains the same form of magic. Follow the swirls of ancient magic and investigate the room to open up a portal that takes you to your first set of enemies in the trial.
These are standard Protectors and Sentinels, so you should have no issues dispatching them and moving on quickly. After that, things get a bit trickier.
Platform Puzzles
The platform puzzles in Rackham’s first trial get progressively more difficult, but the same logic is applied to solving all of them.
The first thing that you need to know is that when you investigate ancient magic and a portal opens up, you can view two dimensions of the same room depending on which direction you enter the portal from.
The key to unlocking each platform puzzle will involve you trying to get around the room with the available platforms and linking both dimensions of the room in some way.
Puzzle 1
For instance, to get past the first platform puzzle, you need to use Accio to draw the platform close to you, and then use the same spell to move with the platform over to other areas where static platforms are molded into the rocks.
Puzzle 2
The second puzzle is a bit trickier. After you investigate the magic on the floor at the top of the stairs, pull the platform over to you and then investigate the magic that appears on that. As usual, that action will open up a portal that reveals the second dimension of the room.
You will notice that each time you go through the back of the archway with the portal, the bridge in the room will disappear and there’s open space for you to drag the platform over to the other side where you need to be to progress.
To solve the puzzle, go through the back of the archway and drag the platform to the other side of it. To be completely sure that it is on the other side, drag it all the way to the far corner.
Then, go through the front of the archway and the bridge should re-appear. Climb onto it, drag the platform over to you, and then drag yourself from the bridge to the exit.
Puzzle 3
Again, the next room welcomes you with a few Sentinels and Protectors, followed by the next puzzle which was even more difficult to figure out. When I eventually did, it seemed ridiculously simple.
There are two movable platforms here, and you need to use both of them. After investigating the magic and making the portal appear, I used Accio to maneuver both platforms until each one was on either side of the portal, directly facing the other.
I hopped from the platform at the front of the portal onto the one behind it, and then I dragged myself to the exit on the other side with one of the static platforms placed inside the stone there.
Pensieve Guardian Boss Fight
Initially, this room appears to contain standard Pensieve protectors. However, when you’ve defeated all of them, the Pensieve Guardian reveals himself – and he’s a big guy.
His attacks are noticeably heavier than the others, but you’ll find more success fighting smarter than harder.
You can easily evade his standard attack with a dodge roll, but the orb attack is not so straightforward. If he successfully charges up the orb and attacks, there’s no way to stop it.
So, to stop the Guardian from charging up the orb, you have to attack him with a spell that has the same color as that of the orb while it’s charging up.
For instance, if the orb glows yellow while it’s charging, you need to deflect the attack and aim for the orb with a “Control” spell. At this stage of the game, you should know about the spell categories in Hogwarts Legacy.
I recommend having at least one spell from each category in your loadout before going into this boss fight to make sure that you’re prepared for whatever the orb tries to throw at you.
If you successfully deflect an orb attack, it will rebound on the Guardian and weaken him further. Keep dodging, deflecting, and sending your own standard attacks and the trial should be over within a short time.
If you’re struggling with constantly swapping out spells in your loadout, you’ll benefit from learning how to unlock more spell slots as quickly as possible.
