Hogwarts Legacy is based on the Wizarding World universe created by J.K. Rowling. You can read more about Rowling’s history of transphobic remarks as well as find resources to support LGBTQ organizations here.
If you grew up on Harry Potter and always dreamed of being sorted into either Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw, you’ll be happy to know that Hogwarts Legacy lets you choose which of those four Houses you will join. Of course, that choice has already caused some early players to panic over which is the “best” House in the game.
Well, those who dreamed of joining one House or the other will be happy to hear that your choice of House in Hogwarts Legacy is as important as it is important to you. That is to say that you won’t miss out on anything that significant due to your House choice.
If that answer just isn’t enough for you, though, then here’s a little better look at how to choose the best House for you in Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts Legacy: How to Choose Your House
There are actually a few ways to choose your House in Hogwarts Legacy.
Devoted fans can actually take an expanded online quiz that will determine which house they are sorted into. To do so, you’ll need to link your Harry Potter Fan Club and Warner Bros. Games accounts together. Once you’ve linked them via this site, you can use the “Get Sorted Now” button on the Fan Club site to take a sorting quiz. The results of that quiz will determine which House you are sorted into in Hogwarts Legacy. For more information on how to complete this process, be sure to check out the Wizarding World website. That same process will also let you choose your in-game wand before you’re able to do so in the campaign.
If you’d rather not go through all of that, you can simply wait until you reach Hogwarts early into the Hogwarts Legacy campaign. Once that happens, you’ll start the sorting ceremony. You can’t miss it, so there’s nothing to worry about so far as that goes.
As you’re being sorted, the Sorting Hat will give you two prompts:
“You come here with preferences and preconceptions — certain expectations.”
“Hmm. I wonder. Hmm. I detect something in you. A certain sense of — hmm — what is it?”
Your answer to the first prompt does not affect the sorting process at all. It’s just a bit of role-playing. However, the answer to the second prompt will determine which House you’re initially sorted into. Specifically, the following answers will sort you into the corresponding Houses:
Ambition – Slytherin
Loyalty – Hufflepuff
Curiosity – Ravenclaw
Daring – Gryffindor
Please note that if you have chosen to take the online quiz, you will not receive those Sorting Hat prompts. Instead, the online quiz will determine which House you are sorted into. If you have taken that quiz ahead of time (and linked your accounts appropriately), the game will instead ask if you’d like to explore the castle or get started with classes.
Finally, those who choose the in-game sorting option will ultimately get to choose which House they would like to be sorted in, regardless of which answer they gave to the Sorting Hat questions. In other words…it doesn’t really matter. You ultimately pick which House you would like to be in.
Hogwarts Legacy: How Does Your House Choice Change the Game?
For the most part, your House choice has very little impact on your overall Hogwarts Legacy adventure. With some exceptions that we’ll get to in a bit, it’s best to think of your House choice as an expanded cosmetic.
So far as that goes, the biggest thing that your choice of House impacts is which common room you gain access to. You can only enter the common room associated with your House, so if there is a common room that you like more than the others, that might just be the House for you. Here’s a video that showcases each common room in the game in case you want to find your favorite ahead of time.
Please note that you’ll rarely need to return to your common room once you get into the open portion of the game. Essentially, that common room is just an optional extra area to explore. Each common room does have a few little secrets, though most of those amount to small visual touches. You’ll also see slightly different scenes when you first enter a common room and if you try to enter the wrong common room. Again, though, none of that really adds up to much in the long run.
Beyond that, your choice of House will have very little impact on what you can and cannot do in the game. Slytherin players can still be nice, Hufflepuff players can still be jerks, and so on. Your choice of House also doesn’t affect your character’s skills, stats, or prevent you from interacting with major characters.
For what it’s worth, though, your choice of House will play a minor role in your various character interactions. For instance, the game offers a few “companion” NPCs who you’ll interact with throughout the game. If you choose the same House as one of those companion characters, you will be able to interact with them in your shared common room. However, every character will be able to interact with every companion, and there don’t seem to be any notable special interactions that are limited to companions in the same House as you.
That being said, there are some minor NPCs that are only available in your common room. Aside from a couple of unique dialog options, though, those NPCs do not have a significant impact on the game. There are also a few minor dialog differences in certain cutscenes based on your House choice, but most of those differences amount to which House name is said during certain cutscenes. For instance, if you’re in Ravenclaw and talking to a Ravenclaw NPC, they may acknowledge you share a house. If you’re in Gryffindor, that same NPC will likely have much more generic dialog. That kind of thing.
For the most part, though, your choice of House in Hogwarts Legacy won’t significantly alter the fundamental parts of the game beyond which common room you gain access to and the NPCs you encounter in those rooms.
Hogwarts Legacy: Are There Any Quests or Other Pieces of Content That Are Unique to Each House?
While your choice of House will not significantly impact your Hogwarts Legacy adventure, there are a couple of pieces of content that are unique to each House that you should know about.
The first is your starting set of robes and associated cosmetic options (such as an optional broom design available to you later). Basically, there are a few cosmetics in the game that are visually associated with your chosen House. Unless you’re a fan of the primary House colors (Red, Green, Blue, or Yellow), though, then it’s not really that big of a deal.
What is a slightly bigger deal, though, are the unique quests available to each House. I don’t want to get too deep into spoilers so early on (and much of the game is still being discovered), but there are some very brief quests and moments in quests that are slightly different depending on which House you choose. These quests will not lock you out of significant content, but some do seem to be more substantial than others. They ultimately all lead you to the same place, but what you’ll see along the way changes slightly.
If you’re really curious about what those unique quests consist of, you can find them in this article that contains spoilers for all of them.
That’s pretty much it when it comes to unique content, though. Fans scoured the game looking for something more substantial, but those unique quests are the only notable piece of house-specific content you have to look forward to. While some enjoy the idea that they’re not missing out on anything substantial due to their choice of house, a few more unique additions would have been appreciated.
Hogwarts Legacy: Can You Change Your House?
Unfortunately, you can’t change your House in Hogwarts Legacy. The game plays it loose with certain pieces of lore, but that would obviously be quite the stretch.
However, Hogwarts Legacy does let you manage multiple save slots (up to four, in fact), so you could always create a new character for each House. As noted above, though, you shouldn’t expect the game to be significantly different for each of those characters. It’s just there for absolute completionists or second (or third, or fourth) playthroughs.
Hogwarts Legacy: What Is the Best House in the Game?
Again, there really isn’t a “best” House in Hogwarts Legacy. For the most part, your choice of House will come down to your personal favorite common room/House style. You could base your choice on your personal roleplaying preferences, but those roleplaying elements are rarely represented in the gameplay. If you’ve always wanted to join a certain House, though, then this is your chance to do so.
What if absolutely none of that matters to you, though, and you just want to pick the House that offers the best overall experience? Well, for what it’s worth, I will say that Gryffindor and Hufflepuff probably have the most interesting unique quests (their common rooms are also fantastic). The Slytherin quest is also pretty fun, and the Ravenclaw quest is sadly not as memorable. That’s about as minor as such differences get, but the game really does seem to be more interested in ensuring a relatively equal experience for all.