As any budding witch or wizard exploring the winding halls of Hogwarts or the sleepy streets of Hogsmeade will quickly discover, locked doors and chests are everywhere in Hogwarts Legacy. Be it a mysterious room sealed behind a glowing lock or a chest staring at you with an enchanted eyeball, the magical world loves to keep secrets behind barriers.
But these locked doors and chests are worth your time usually hiding valuable gear, galleons, or collectible goodies. That said, unlocking them isn’t something you can do straight away. Let’s discuss what you need to do, when it becomes available, and how to level up your unlocking skills to open even the hardest locks in Hogwarts Legacy.
When Can You Open Locked Doors and Chests in Hogwarts Legacy?
Early on, you’ll run into plenty of doors with the lock symbols marked “Level 1,” and it can be a little frustrating not being able to open them. But opening them is linked to story progression until you take on the main quest called “The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament.” You’ll need to progress through a lot of main quests (which could take a handful of hours and more hours if you get distracted by side activities and exploration).
This specific quest introduces you to Gladwin Moon, the castle’s anxious caretaker, who’s convinced someone is planting Demiguise statues to mess with him. During the quest, he’ll teach you the Alohomora spell, the good old Unlocking Charm from the books and films. With this spell, you will be able to open Level 1 locks on doors, chests, or hidden passageways scattered across Hogwarts and beyond.
How to Open Locked Doors in Hogwarts Legacy
Once you’ve learned Alohomora, it involves a lockpicking minigame to finally crack open the lock. When you approach a locked door or chest, cast Alohomora to trigger the lockpicking screen. The lock consists of two rotating rings—one red (inner) and one green (outer).
Each ring has separate control mechanics depending on your gaming system. On a controller, one analog stick manages each ring (left stick to move green and right one for red), and if you’re playing on PC, the Q/E/A/D keys handle the movement. You need to rotate each spark to a position where nearby gears begin to spin, one for each ring. Once the gears move for both rings, keep them steady for a moment, and the lock will open. There’s no failure condition here so you can’t mess this up by guessing wrong.
How to Unlock Level 2 and Level 3 Locks
Learning Alohomora is only the beginning. When Gladwin Moon first teaches it to you, it’s limited to Level 1 locks. But Hogwarts has plenty of more high-level secure doors and chests that require Alohomora II and III. So how to upgrade it? Demiguise Statues are the answer. These moon-holding monkey statues appear across Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and the nearby highlands but they can only be collected at night. Even if you find one during the daytime, you’ll need to open your map and change the time to night.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Alohomora II – Bring Gladwin 9 Demiguise Moons
- Alohomora III – Bring him even more – a total of 13 more, so 22 Demiguise Moons in all
Once you’ve collected enough, return to Gladwin, and he’ll level up your spell letting you tackle the tougher locks. These upgrades aren’t connected to the main story so you can collect Moons at your leisure, but only after “The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament.”
Other than these, these are unique Eyeball chests the game has introduced. These chests with giant eyeballs might be the first “locked” item you encounter, and they’re tricky because you can’t open them with Alohomora. To crack open, you’ll need to cast the Disillusionment Charm and sneak up on the chest from outside its field of view. We have created a separate guide on how to unlock eyeball chests in Hogwarts Legacy.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the locked stuff in Hogwarts Legacy. But unlocking doors and chests pays off big time not just with loot, but also with secrets, shortcuts, and secret areas that are the bread and butter of adventurers.
