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Harry Potter Wizards Unite: starting tips and professions guide

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Harry Potter Wizards Unite augmented reality game is now available to play in the UK and the US, and Potterheads in these countries are already embarking on their quests to protect the Wizarding world's secrets. All the game mechanics and options in are wrapped up in Potterverse jargon, so we'll explain what's going on to help you have the best possible start.

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Good news if your geeky interests also cross over into Pokémon Go, since this game is also made by Niantic Labs, uses the same location data and shares many aspects, albeit under different names. 

Quick start guide

  1. First thing's first. When you open the app, you'll be prompted to log in via Facebook or Google. Easy! Google's probably a better bet here if you're concerned about privacy.
  2. For your profile picture, you can take a selfie and customize it with AR items like a wizards robe and hat, Hagrid's beard or even Harry Potter's distinctive lightning scar. There are some preset images available if you're shy about showing your face though.
  3. Then, you're asked to enter your first and last name. This is just for roleplaying purposes, for NPCs to address you not for other players, who don't see this information. The second name input is the handle that others will know you by when they add you as a friend.

Choosing a house

You can freely choose your house, no Sorting Hat here! That's a bit sad, but at least you'll get to pick your favorite. If you'd rather roleplay the Hat choosing for you, then try one of the many online personality quizzes that will assign you a house. Ultimately, House is not so relevant in game. Instead, the professions, detailed below, are what's important.

Wait, what am I doing?

You're a new member of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force — a group that works to protect the Ministry of Magic’s masquerade and keep the existence of the wizarding world secret from the muggle public. A strange magic oddity called 'The Calamity' is causing artifacts and creatures from the wizarding world appear in 'real' world.

Your mission is to discover these magical anomalies called "Foundables", wave your wand at them (by tracing your finger on the screen) and banish them back to where they came from. Easy enough, and the important locations of Foundables are local landmarks along the line of how it's done in Pokémon Go and Ingress. Some encounters will resist you, and you'll need to use combat spells. As you progress in the game, you'll upgrade your stats and spells to help you beat more difficult combat encounters.

Good luck! Once you have a few levels under your belt, it's time to choose your profession.

Wizards with class: choose a profession

When you hit Level 6, you'll be asked to choose one of three different professions. These are basically RPG 'classes', each has different strengths and weaknesses, which are important in combat. Each Profession grants access to its own unique tree of skills and perks to unlock over time.

You'll want to pick the job that suits your combat style but for multiplayer Wizarding Challenges, when you team up to take on Fortresses (important locations with special prizes that you need to win via combat), you'll want to cooperate with different professions for a balanced team. If friends in your area also play Wizards Unite, have a chat with them to plan your specializations.

You can switch specializations at any time, especially useful if your team is missing a role, but as you get more experience, upgrade your abilities and so on, you'll may find it useful to concentrate on one profession to make that role more effective.

Auror

Mentored by none other than Harry Potter himself Aurors specialize in defense against the Dark Arts. Aurors are straight-up fighters: their abilities tend to boosts combat strength and dealing direct damage to enemies. Aurors have the highest Power of all the professions, a higher critical hit chance, and do more damage. Aurors do extra damage to Dark Forces enemies but take extra damage from Beast enemies. The main weakness of Aurors is a low Stamina, or health, so they can dish out the hurt but not take so much.

Magizoologist

Magizoologists are the disciples of Hagrid and share his affinity for caring for magical creatures, and their fellow humans too. This profession is all about healing and defense. They are also quite tanky themselves. Magizoologists have the highest Stamina, are are strong against Beast enemies and weak against Curiosities.

Professor

Minerva McGonagle serve as mentor to the Professors, which strike a balance between the aggressive Aurors and defensive Magizoologists. These wizards focus on buffing allies and debuffing enemies, controlling status effects on the battlefield. Professors do more damage to Curiosities and take extra damage from Dark Forces enemies.

That's about it for first steps along the road to wizarding greatness! Do you have any questions or tips you'd like to share about Harry Potter Wizards Unite? Let us know in the comments!

 

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Nicholas Montegriffo

Nicholas Montegriffo
Editor

A cyberpunk and actual punk, Nicholas is the Androidpit team's hardcore gamer, writing with a focus on future tech, VR/AR, AI & robotics. Out of office, he can be found hanging around in goth clubs, eating too many chillies, or at home telling an unlucky nerd that their 8th level wizard died from a poisoned spike trap.

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  • 17
    Gavin Runeblade Jun 24, 2019 Link to comment

    The profession information is just copy/pasted from the game, but it's not accurate to how the numbers roll out. Things might get re-balanced in the future but currently, professors are the highest damage and Auror's are a bit gimpy. However for Fortresses you want a few people from each profession because of the bonuses vs specific enemies. Also, while it is possible to change profession, you really don't want to do it. The resources to advance get harder and harder to acquire over time and when you change profession what you invested in the previous one is not refunded.

    Energy is the biggest issue. In some rural areas the game can be completely unplayable because of lack of inns for recharging. Unlike most games with a stamina mechanic, spell energy never recharges over time. Youc an visit an inn, or spent real world cash. In theory you can get between 1 and 12 energy every 5 minutes at an inn. Personally, I've never gotten more than 3. Some lucky people live in towns with lots of inns and can recharge easily.

    A key difference from PokemonGo is inventory. In Pokemon inventory upgrades cost vastly less and so you can earn one every other day if you really want to. In Wizards you'll need to grind for a month to afford an inventory upgrade. So don't be a hoarder, spend the resources as you find them and toss out the commons when you get too many. Brew potions non-stop if you can. And don't be afraid to use potions, especially the ones you can brew early on. They're easy to replace and not valuable, so use 'em.

    Don't try to claim every foundable if it means you'll run out of energy. Focus on the ones with a column of yellow or red energy coming out of them (those are rarer ones) and try to keep at least 10 energy just in case. If you can find a nice patrol or loop to walk that gives you a bunch of inns and a bunch of good foundable spawns combined, that's awesome, plus good physical exercise.

    Last, since it is new there will be bugs. Report them. The more they get reported the more they are on the Dev's radar for being patched.

    Craig Lewis