Entertainment

Tips and Tricks for Solving the
Calamity in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

Tips, tricks and spells to turn you from a muggle into a Dumbledore-esque wizard.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (or a Philosopher’s Stone), then you’ll already be aware that the game of the year is undoubtedly the new augmented reality mobile game—Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.

Made by Niantic, the same company behind the last augmented reality craze that was Pokémon Go, the gameplay is just as exciting: real-life is augmented with items from the Harry Potter universe for players to see through their mobile screen and collect for themselves by visiting the locations as fast as they can.

Or, for those that speak Parseltongue: a calamity has befallen the wizarding world, causing Foundables—magical artefacts, creatures, people, and even memories—to mysteriously appear in the Muggle world. As a new recruit of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force, you will work with witches and wizards from across the globe to find and return the Foundables using magic spells, solve the mystery of The Calamity and keep the magic safe from Muggle eyes.

To help you get the most out of this year’s latest must-have AR craze, we’ve given you some tips and tricks to get you ahead of the pack.

Customise your profile pic, wand and choose your house

Once you have downloaded Wizards Unite for your Samsung S10, it will ask for your name and code name and then give you a tutorial on the basics. Once you have collected your first Foundable, the game will ask you to finish your Ministry ID, which is how you customise your profile, and you can always access it by hitting the wizard icon.

Your Ministry ID page has things like title, house, profession, profile picture and wand type all available to see. Instead of going through a sorting ceremony, as per Hogwarts first year tradition, players can choose which house they want to be in from the famous houses of Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw.

Added to that, you can take a new photo or use a pre-taken one for your profile pic. With lots of Harry Potter themed face filters and editing tools to add hats, wigs, and glasses, you can sprinkle some magic on your shot. The Samsung S10’s 10 megapixel selfie camera is perfect to cast a beauty spell on any selfie. Lastly, you can select your wand’s wood type, length and core. For those with a Note (and this is really inspired) you can cast spells by waving the S Pen, and the game will show a wand that’s personalised just for you.

Catch confoundables in combat

Similar to Niantic’s Pokémon GO, the main thrust of the gameplay is to travel around real-world locations and collect magical objects, except that instead of Pokémon, in Wizards Unite it’s ‘Confoundables’, which appear as floating badges on-screen. On your map, a high level of Confoundables will be shown as a flag, so you know where to head to get stuck in.

Once you select a Confoundable, you’ll have to cast a spell on it. If you’ve got a Note, the S Pen acts as your wand, letting you trace a pattern over the screen. Sometimes the Confoundable will be protected by a wizard or beast that you have to defeat in combat. Again, by tracing spell symbols with your S Pen on the screen when prompted, you can battle your way to every floating badge.

The more Confoundables you collect and put into your ‘Registry’, the more you’ll level up, learn better spells and generally become a stronger wizard.

Visit locations, locations, locations

There are a number of important locations that you can see on the dynamic map in Wizards Unite. With the wide-focused screen, you’ll be able to see the AR enhanced Wizards Unite map in the most incredible detail, which will either help you spot locations that will help your wizard out or challenge them to the fullest of their magical abilities.

‘Inns’ will provide you with a plate of food that will give you more spell energy to use to defeat anyone you fight in combat. Every meal gives a different level of energy but are given to you at random, so don’t fret if you don’t get enough fuel as Inns are fairly common on the map.

Similarly, Greenhouses are places on the map that will reward you with ingredients that you can use for potion brewing. Similar to Inns, the ingredients you’re given are completely random. These ingredients are important because you can brew things like health potions to help you survive longer battles.

Lastly there are ‘Fortresses’, which, similar to Pokémon Go ‘Raids’, are large-scale battles that require you to team up with other wizards to battle for rarer or more powerful items. There are ten layers to each Fortress; which you can try and attack with a maximum of four other wizards, and each layer is more difficult than the last, so make sure you stock up on health potions beforehand.

Keep it professional

Once you’ve got to grips with the game and have reached level six, you’ll be able to choose from three ‘professions’, each with their own pros, cons, and individual ‘passive’ (defensive) and ‘active’ (attacking) spells, so choosing one that’s right for you is worth taking some time over.

Aurors are specialist officers who investigate the Dark Arts, so you’ll be very powerful against enemies, and generally have the highest damage of any profession, but as a result they lack in defensive or support spells.

Magizoologists study magical creatures. It’s mainly a defensive profession that gives you great health points (HP) and strong support spells. As the job description suggests, they’re most effective against beast-type foes.

Lastly, you can choose to be a Professor. They are essentially a balance of Aurors and Magizoologists which means you’ll have a generally good attack and defence but won’t excel at either. They’re most effective against curiosity-type enemies.

Become a master wizard with the Samsung Galaxy S10

Play Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and many more incredible games on the amazing Galaxy S10 phone.

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