Hogwarts Legacy allows its players to take control of a fifth-year student during their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The story kicks off with the young protagonist journeying to the famed wizarding school via a Thestral-pulled carriage, but things take a turn when their carriage is attacked by a dragon.
When the protagonist eventually reaches Hogwarts, they will need to attend a few classes before they are permitted to explore the world outside, where most of Hogwarts Legacy's side quests can be found and initiated. However, The Hippogriff Marks the Spot side quest can be quite difficult to complete if the player doesn't know where to look.
Updated August 26th, 2023: There are a handful of puzzlingly difficult sidequests found in Hogwarts Legacy. A good example is the Hippogriff Marks the Spot. Although it can seem pretty ambiguous and difficult at first, players who know where to go and what to do will see themselves solving the Hippogriff Marks the Spot sidequest in Hogwarts Legacy in no time. To better help players solve this side quest and obtain its reward, the following guide has been updated and now includes a video.
How To Get To Poidsear Coast
Upon gaining access to a broom in Hogwarts Legacy, players are free to travel to almost anywhere they like on the world's map. This isn't the case for places like Poidsear Coast; if players attempt to fly there, they will find that an invisible wall will prevent them from going any further.
If players are traveling to Poidsear Coast for the first time, they should head south from Keenbridge toward the Medium Bandit Camp and proceed through the cave directly behind the encampment itself. Inside, they will encounter several more goblins and Oggbert the Odd, one of Hogwarts Legacy's twenty-one Infamous Foes.
Upon traveling through the short cavern and reaching the exit at the other side, the protagonist will arrive at Poidsear Coast, where they can then mount their broom and begin exploring one of Hogwarts Legacy's more hard-to-reach areas.
How To Start The Hippogriff Marks The Spot Side Quest In Hogwarts Legacy
To begin The Hippogriff Marks the Spot, the protagonist should mount their broom and fly southeast from the cave they just exited until they reach Poidsear Castle, a ruin crawling with dangerous foes.
If the player wishes to avoid facing these enemies, they should cast the Disillusionment charm and sneak into the tent at the castle's southwest corner; otherwise, they will need to face the Infamous Foe, Iona Morgan, and her goons.
Inside the tent, the player can find Henrietta's Map, an item that, when interacted with, reveals the location of a unique treasure. Sadly, the map doesn't explicitly state how to acquire this treasure, so the player might struggle in figuring out where to begin their search.
How To Find Henrietta's Hideaway
According to Henrietta's Map, the treasure can be found by entering a passage underneath a ruin, but seeing as Hogwarts Legacy is full of these structures, finding the correct one can be a tad challenging. Though the protagonist will remark that these ruins are near where the map was found, they will need to travel quite far to reach them.
To find the ruins referenced in the map, the player will need to mount their broom and travel southeast until they reach Henrietta's Hideaway. It's quite easy to get lost on the way, given the size of this region, but players can follow the cliffs leading southeast if they are struggling.
Like in Poidsear Coast, it is possible to avoid fighting the enemies here, so long as the player makes use of the Disillusionment charm. The entrance of Henrietta's Hideaway can be found by descending the southeast stairs of the ruins next to the Merlin Trial. At the end of this path, the player will be faced with the door that leads inside.
How To Solve The Block Puzzle
Upon entering Henrietta's Hideaway, players will be faced with a puzzle that requires them to place a block on its corresponding plate. To find the block needed to open the way forward, they must cast Confringo of Incendio at the brazier to the left; doing so will spin the statue around, revealing the missing block.
Then, with Wingardium Leviosa, the player must levitate the block onto the flame-etched plate in front of the door. Once both blocks are in place, casting Incendio or Confringo on the left block and Glacius on the right will open the way forward. There are several Ashwinders in the next area, but once they have been dealt with, the player will be able to focus solely on finding the treasure.
How To Solve The Hippogriff Puzzle
After dealing with the Ashwinders lurking in the next room, players should focus their attention on the Hippogriff statue. According to Henrietta's Map, the braziers surrounding the statue need to be lit in a certain way in order for the treasure to be revealed. To solve this puzzle, the player must rely on Glacius and Incendio to ignite and extinguish the braziers depicted on the map.
This process can be completed with relative ease, as all the player needs to do is extinguish the already-lit flames and ignite the flameless ones. That said, it is easy to lose track of what braziers need to be lit, especially since Glacius and Confringo might not work the first time. So long as the player refers to the map while casting and only four braziers are lit at the end, the passage to the hidden treasure will open.
To obtain the treasure, all the player needs to do is venture behind the Hippogriff statue and enter the newly opened chamber. There, they will be faced with a chest containing 400 Galleons and the Treasure-Seeker's Gloves. The Hippogriff Marks the Spot side quest will end upon opening the chest.
Rescuing Rococo And Solved By The Bell Side Quests
Before leaving Henrietta's Hideaway, players can also complete the Rescuing Rococo side quest if they have already encountered Agness Coffey in Bainburgh. This quest requires the player to venture to Henrietta's Hideaway and delve deeper into the ruins than they did during The Hippogriff Marks the Spot.
In the next room filled with Ashwinders, players can discover a hidden chamber behind an enchanted wall on the right-hand side of the room. Inside, they can find the Musical Map, an item that must be collected in order to begin the Solved by the Bell side quest.
What's especially handy about the location of these quests is that players won't need to solve the block puzzle again in order to pursue them, which makes completing them a great deal easier. That said, the yet-to-be-explored areas of Henrietta's Hideaway are home to even more Ashwinders, so players should proceed with caution if they plan to complete all the available quests there.
Players can complete The Hippogriff Marks the Spot and Rescuing Rococo within fifteen minutes if they pursue both quests during their first visit to Henrietta's Hideaway; otherwise, both quests will take approximately ten minutes each to finish. The Solved by the Bell quest requires players to travel to Clagmar Castle after they have acquired the Musical Map, but it's possible to complete the quest in under five minutes if players know the solution to the bell puzzle.
Hogwarts Legacy is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with a Switch release scheduled for November 14th, 2023.