Hogwarts Legacy: How to open treasure vaults

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While running around the map in Hogwarts Legacy, you’re bound to come across dozens of special treasure vaults with at least one chest inside. Most are pretty straightforward and will just require you to use the proper spell to unlock. However, there are also some more tricky treasure vaults that will take more work and puzzle solving.

We’ll go over the basic ways to unlock most treasure vaults inHogwarts Legacyalong with more in-depth explanations on how to solve some of the more tricky treasure vault puzzles like the chess puzzle and San Bakar’s Tower treasure vault puzzles.

How to tell where treasure vaults are in Hogwarts Legacy

Treasure vaults are marked on the map with a cave-like symbol that has multiple arches in it. Simply mark these on the map and then travel to them.

How to solve all treasure vault puzzles in Hogwarts Legacy

Particularly tricky treasure vaults

Some treasure vault puzzles will take more work or might be unique puzzles with none others like them on the map. Here are some of these more tricky treasure vaults along with steps on how to solve them.

Phoenix Mountain Cave / Cragcroft Treasure Vault: Chess Puzzle

This chess puzzle is at both the Cragcroft treasure vault and the Phoenix Mountain Cave treasure vault. Solving these chess puzzles takes a bit of magic as well as an understanding of how chess pieces work.

Inside these caves, you’ll find a game of chess mostly played through. In order to solve this chess puzzle, you need to castTransformation(goblet with a rat tail)on the object in the room that glows blue when you castRevelio. Doing this changes it into a chess piece. You’ll then need to place it somewhere on the board that signals checkmate for white.

In the Phoenix Mountain Cave, go to the white chair on the left of the entrance when you walk in and castTransformationon it to turn the chair into a white Knight chess piece.

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Meanwhile, if you’re at the Cragcroft treasure vault, you need to transform the vase that glows blue when you useReveliointo a Bishop chess piece.

In the Phoenix Mountain Cave treasure vault, you want to useWingardium Leviosato place the Knight so that it is one square left and one square forward from where the white Queen is.

If you’re at the Cragcroft treasure vault, you need to useWingardium Leviosato place the Bishop in the depressed square two spaces up from the black Pawn that’s next to the white Knight.

This will call checkmate against the black King piece on the other side, causing it to crumble. Then your reward for completing the chess puzzle will appear.

San Bakar’s Tower Treasure Vault cube puzzle

Pick up the cube in the center of the room using Wingardium Leviosa. Now rotate it so that the symbol is pointing up (holding Q on PC). Now place the cube in the open slot with the other cubes.

Aranshire Treasure Vault mini tornado puzzle

A small leafy tornado blows around this room with two archways inside of it. When you walk through the arches things in the room will change. Locate the mini tornado three times and walk through it to make a treasure chest appear.

Aranshire Treasure Vault moving floor puzzle

After placing the spell cube on the platform outside and casting the spell on it, you’ll walk into a cave to the north of the cube. If you cast Revelio, you’ll see there’s a section of floor inside here that glows blue. If you stand on it, you’ll quickly get whipped around into a secret room and then back again. While you’re getting whipped around spam the collect button (F on PC) to grab the treasure while you move.

South of Aranshire Treasure Vault statue brazier puzzle

After placing a fire spell cube on its pedestal and lighting it, a treasure vault will unlock. When you get to the bottom of this area there is a statue on the left and an open alcove with a grey platform on the right. Hit the fire brazier with Glacius to put the fire out and then stand on the grey platform that appears. It will rotate you into the treasure chest room. (If that doesn’t work then you need to flip the other alcove by standing on the grey button there as well).

Central Hogwarts Valley treasure vault chest under floor puzzle

To access the vault, you need to use Accio on the handle object to the left of the stairs. Now go in to the vault and use Revelio to see the chest and a strange cube. Use Wingardium Leviosa on the cube hidden in the upper right side of the room. Bring it toward the chest and the floor will lower allowing you to get the treasure.

Dozens of treasures to find

One of the things that makes Hogwarts Legacy so fun is the large number of puzzles and rewards players can come across during their travels. This truly is one of the reasons that this magical adventure is one of thebest PC gamesandbest Xbox gamesout there.

If you take the time to go to the treasure vault areas early on in the game, you might just unlock some better gear for yourself, which will allow you to have an edge in battles. Some puzzles are tricky, but if you have all of the spell unlocked then you should be able to solve them.

Self-professed gaming geek, Rebecca Spear, is one of Windows Central’s editors and reviewers with a focus on gaming handhelds, PC gaming, and laptops. When she isn’t checking out the latest games on Xbox Game Pass, PC, ROG Ally, or Steam Deck; she can be found digital drawing with a Wacom tablet. She’s written thousands of articles with everything from editorials, reviews, previews, features, previews, and hardware reviews over the last few years. If you need information about anything gaming-related, her articles can help you out. She also loves testing game accessories and any new tech on the market. You can follow her@rrspearon X (formerly Twitter).