10 best spells in Hogwarts Legacy, ranked

If you take the unforgivable curses, you’ll have an easier time

Over the course of a 100% completion run and many, many spell challenges, I’ve started to fully acclimate to Hogwarts Legacy‘s spell system. There’s a number of great combat spells to use that can make your life easier, so let’s go over the best of them here!

As a reminder, we have a full spell list here to peruse!

This list will be purely [damage] DPS-focused, so don’t be surprised if there are a lot of unforgivable curses and Dark Arts-adjacent spells on it!

10: Transformation

Although you may not get this spell until later in the game, Transformation (especially when coupled with the talent that turns enemies into explosive barrels) can be great in group fights.

It basically takes an enemy out of the fight, and can create more heavy-damage dealing objects to fling at enemies (with L1/LB). Also, try and use it on an Animagus in animal form to turn them back into a human!

9: Glacius

Glacius doesn’t grade high on the damage scale, but it does offer a ton of utility with its freezing power.

Plus, having at least one yellow spell on your bar allows you to take out yellow spell shields from enemies (and it comes up a lot in dungeons and puzzles).

8: Diffindo (Slash)

Otherwise known as the “slash” spell, this ranged attack is on a longer cooldown, but can be great to have on a non-essential hotbar. Red spells generally do the most damage in the game, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have all of the ranged red spells on a bar at some point.

Plus, slash occasionally comes up in a challenge context, so you can more easily finish those if you have it available.

7: Arresto Momentum

Arresto Momentum is one of the few non-DPS exceptions on this damage-focused the list: since most of it is focused on spells that can provide utility while dealing damage.

However, taking someone out by slowing them down can be a boon, and having another yellow spell on your bar in a pinch (beyond Transformation) isn’t a bad idea. Like several other spells, you can tech into the Dark Arts talent tree to make it stronger.

6: Expelliarmus

Just like Confringo, Expelliarmus got me through many encounters: from regular fights to boss battles.

It’s a great opportunity to disarm a few lesser enemies and basically stun them for a moment, it can be combined with a Dark Arts curse talent, and it deals raw damage: what’s not to like?

5: Confringo

Confringo is a super useful and reliable spell that you can cast over and over and not get sick of.

Confringo is ranged, its multiple enemies, it does fire damage to spiders, and opens up Inferius enemies to damage.

4: Bombarda

Bombarda has a long cooldown, which makes it suited for an off-bar/non-main hotbar.

That said it does an incredible amount of damage in one quick burst, which can be useful for finishing off bosses or pushing them into new phases. Having it handy to blow up a few pieces of the environment or to solve Merlin Trial puzzles is a great idea too.

3: Crucio

Cards on the able, the unforgivable curses (the green Dark Arts spells) are on a different level.

Crucio (direct damage) is arguably the weakest of the trio, but it can be used to apply the raw curse debuff to enemies, which is great to spread around as much as possible.

2: Imperio

The Imperio curse serves like a classic JRPG “charm” spell, allowing the player to take control of an enemy unit. Now, fascinatingly, this works with elites/trolls/other big enemies beyond a select few story boss fights.

In short, in a huge brawl, you can have a troll temporarily join your party, take out a ton of enemies, then finish them off. About that! You can actually turn invisible and sneak up on units under your command and use the Petrificus Totalus stealth ability on them (make sure you spam it).

1: Avada Kedavra

Without a doubt, Avada Kedavra is the best spell in the game: just based off of the fact that it can one-shot nearly any enemy in Hogwarts Legacy, including infamous foes and many elites. It’s no wonder that you’ll need to wait until the end of the game to unlock it.

There are very few bosses it doesn’t work on (mostly story encounters), so keep that cooldown on the ready for trolls, big spiders, and other elites that pop up in battle arenas. The biggest tip: if you take the Dark Arts passive talent for Avada Kedavra, you can instantly eliminate all enemies that have a curse active. Use this in tandem with all your other Dark Arts abilities and the other unforgivable curses to curse as many enemies as possible, then finish them all off at once.