Hogwarts Legacy has become a major hit for Avalanche Software, Portkey Games, and Warner Bros. Indeed, Hogwarts Legacy passed a major sales milestone in the first two weeks alone, with the game reaching the Nintendo Switch later and even introducing PC modding capabilities.
Part of the appeal of Hogwarts Legacy is that it lets fans live out their fantasies as students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, effectively living within the Wizarding World made popular by the Harry Potter franchise. In Hogwarts Legacy, players take on the role of a fifth-year student and, through RPG-style mechanics, can customize their character through more gear as well as learning valuable spells and even some of the more powerful and forbidden dark wizard ones, like Avada Kedavra.
Hogwarts Legacy: How To Solve All Merlin Trial Puzzles
Knowing how to complete all Merlin Trials in Hogwarts Legacy is a crucial step towards increasing the inventory capacity.
While Hogwarts Legacy takes place well before the Harry Potter era, fans may notice some familiar sights, including Hogsmeade Village. The game also has plenty of nods and Easter eggs to the larger franchise, including a customizable space within Hogwarts Castle called the Room of Requirement. Here's what it is and how to expand it further to get more Vivarium space.
Updated March 25, 2025, by Gemma Johnson: Players who enjoy catching and taming beasts in Hogwarts Legacy may soon find their active beast slots can quickly reach full capacity, especially with so many magical creatures to track down and care for in the game. While it has its limitations, there is a way for players who want to give a home to more beasts they've rescued and get more Vivariums in Hogwarts Legacy. Obtaining more Vivariums also enables players to find more collectibles concealed like small chests hidden within the nooks and crannies of each unlockable biome, rewarding players with more customization options for their Vivariums. For players looking to expand upon their Vivarium space in the Room of Requirement, this guide on how to get more Vivariums in Hogwarts Legacy lights the way.
What Is The Vivarium In Hogwarts Legacy?
The Room of Requirement is an important space within Hogwarts Legacy as it gives players a place they can customize and upgrade. In the Wizarding World, the Room of Requirement is a space that can take the form of whatever the person requires at that time. In Hogwarts Legacy, it becomes a place for the player to spend time cultivating plants, upgrading gear, and much more.
In the Room of Requirement, players can also access a Vivarium, a huge space where players can place any animals they come across, like Thestrals, Nifflers, Unicorns, and much more. The default Vivarium space can hold up to 12 animals at a time, though there is a further restriction, which limits the creatures stored to only a maximum of four different species. Thankfully, players can further expand this space to hold more magical creatures by unlocking new biomes via other Vivariums.
How To Get More Vivariums In Hogwarts Legacy
More space is always welcome in the Room of Requirement, especially for those looking to expand the number of creatures on display from the grasslands of the default Forest Vivarium, which is unlocked after players complete 'The Elf, the Nab-Sack, and the Loom' quest. However, adding extra biomes to the default Vivarium will involve a bit of story progression and work to make it happen. Here is how Hogwarts Legacy players can add three new Vivarium biomes in Hogwarts Legacy.
Coastal Vivarium
The Coastal Vivarium is aptly named, given it takes the form of the coastline found south of the map. Once unlocked, players will see rolling waves on a beach among rocky cliffs overlooking the water. To unlock this Vivarium, players must first catch 10 creatures overall and begin 'The Plight of the House Elves' side quest from the Room of Requirement attendant called Deek. Once players meet these requirements, the Coastal Vivarium becomes available during the Fall. Unlocking the Coastal Vivarium gives players another 12 available beast spaces with the same restriction of up to four species at a time.
Like the Forest Vivarium, there are some secret small chests to discover in the Coastal, Swamp, and Mountain Vivariums, which players can find by exploring each Vivarium more closely. In the Default Vivarium, players can also find small chests hidden in the cave right of the entrance and at the top of the waterfall.
Like other hidden Vivarium chests, these give players more construction pieces to customize their Vivariums to their liking, such as stone walls and stairs. There are also resources to collect in each Vivarium, such as Ashwinder Eggs, Horklump Juice, Lacewing Flies, Moonstone, and more.
In the Coastal Vivarium, players can find more small chests tucked away as follows:
- Next to the tree inside the large cave.
- Close to the edge of the cave exit point.
Hogwarts Legacy: Ancient Magic Hotspot Locations
There are 20 Ancient Magic Hotspots for players to find in Hogwarts Legacy. Here's where each of them is located.
Swamp Vivarium
The second Vivarium upgrade is the Swamp Vivarium. This one is again tied to story progression, as players must first complete 'The Plight of the House Elves' side quest and Charles Rookwood's Trial from the main story to unlock it. Once these conditions are met, Professor Weasley will inform players that Deek has another task involving breeding beasts. This step kicks off the 'Foal of the Dead' side quest, which unlocks the Swamp Vivarium during the winter and enables players to purchase a Breeding Pen. As expected, players gain another 12 beast slots with the same four-species restrictions.
The Swamp Vivarium also hides some more small chests to open, located as follows:
- Near the central tree, accessible by climbing up the rocks.
- Up the slope left of the Vivarium entrance.
Mountain Vivarium
The final upgrade is the Mountain Vivarium, and it only becomes available after completing Niamh Fitzgerald's Keeper Trial quest. Deek will once again have a task for the player called 'Phoenix Rising,' and completing this side quest will ultimately unlock the Mountain Vivarium upgrade later in the winter. Once more, another 12 spaces are unlocked with the usual four-species restriction. With this upgrade, the Vivarium section inside the Room of Requirement is finally complete.
- On the hill opposite the stone ruins near the Ashwinder Eggs.
- Inside the ruins just past the spider webs — players will need to use a fire spell like Confringo to get past the webs.
- By the fence down the slope near the lake opposite the ruins.
Altogether, unlocking all Vivariums in Hogwarts Legacy gives players a maximum number of 48 beast slots to home their magical creatures across all four Vivarium biomes, with a maximum of 12 beasts and a beast species limit of up to four species in each (16 species in total). Once players reach their species limit in a Vivarium, they can sell any beasts they don't want at the Brood and Peck store in Hogsmeade to free up more space.
Helpfully, players can also assign beasts to their Beast Inventory while they decide what they want to do with them. From the Beast Inventory, players can also release beasts back into the wild as another way to free up space and an alternative to selling beasts. However, it's worth noting that releasing a beast back into the wild is irreversible, so players will need to catch another of the same species if they change their minds.
Hogwarts Legacy
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 84 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
- Released
- February 10, 2023
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Avalanche Software
- Publisher(s)
- Warner Bros. Games
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Cross-Platform Play
- Hogwarts Legacy doesn't have crossplay or crossplatform support
- Cross Save
- you can freely use your saved data between each console as long as you are connected to the internet and signed into the same account where the saved data was created
WHERE TO PLAY
- Franchise
- Harry Potter
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- How Long To Beat
- 26 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- yes
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
