Hogwarts Legacy Merlin Trials: How to solve every challenge

Hogwarts Legacy Merlin Trials are small spell-based challenges scattered throughout the game’s magical open world. Once you start exploring, you’ll find it’s hard to take three steps without tripping over yet another Merlin Trial. That said, these puzzles are important as they grant you extra gear inventory slots so you can carry more stuff to sell or wear. 

You unlock the first Merlin Trial during the “Trials of Merlin” quest shortly after you meet Natty near Lower Hogsfield, and Nora Treadwell will talk you through the basic concept of placing down Mallowsweet on the altar, and solving the ensuing challenge. However, there are lots of different types of Merlin Trials throughout the world and each of them requires a specific spell to solve. Here’s how to complete every Merlin Trial type I’ve found, and how to get enough Mallowsweet to start them.

How to solve all of the Merlin Trials 

While travelling around the world of Hogwarts Legacy, I found eight different Merlin Trial types that seem to be repeated in variations across the map. It’s worth noting that these trials do require certain spells, making them impossible to complete if you haven’t learned them yet. 

Here’s how to solve each Merlin Trial type:

• Light torches: Light the torches around the trial using Incendio or Confringo. They’ll start sinking into the ground when you do, and you have to light them all before that happens. With that in mind, find their positions first and light the tallest first as well. Confringo is better if possible as you can light from a distance.
• Smash orbs: A simple one where you have to destroy the orbs on top of the pillars using Accio. There are usually a lot of orbs to smash in each of these.
• Standing stones: This one is a good ol’ fashioned wizard parkour obstacle course. Climb onto one end of the nearby standing stones and move across them via running and jumping without touching the ground to reach the other end.
• Symbol cubes: A little trickier to complete, this one requires you to use Flipendo on the cubes with the symbols in order to line up each side with the plinth that the cube rests on. These cubes usually have arrows on some of the faces that help guide you as to which direction they should line up.
• Gather moths: This challenge features hollow cubes with crystals inside. Use Lumos to attract the nearby floating moths, and bring them back to each of the cube crystals in turn to light them up.
• Explode stones: One of the simplest ones; use Confringo to blow up the cracked green-ish rocks around the trial area. Repulso might theoretically also work, but Confringo is probably easier range-wise.
• Repair statues: When you start this trial, a load of statues collapse around the area. Use Reparo to fix them up and complete the challenge.
• Spell ball: Essentially magic football: use yellow and purple movement spells to get the ball into the nearby bowl-shaped goal set into the ground. Of course, you can just use Wingardium Leviosa to cheat and take it there manually.

If you’re doing this for the gear slots, make sure you claim them in challenges when you complete enough of the Merlin Trials.