It’s an unfortunate fact of life that the world doesn’t revolve around you, or even your protagonist in video games, for that matter. The various NPCs that populate Hogwarts Legacy have their own schedules, and won’t always be around to pat you on the back, tell you “good job!” and dole out quest rewards. Typically respectable characters can be found sleeping at night (or rather, can’t be found at all - let’s just assume they’re sleeping), forcing you to wait until the appropriate hour before they’re up and ready to deal with you. Then again, perhaps you just would rather not stumble around a monster-filled forest at night? Whatever your reasons, sometimes you just want to wait, and there are several ways to pass the time in Hogwarts Legacy, which will be the focus of this page.

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(1 of 2) You’ll find a ring at the location where most quest-givers stand, which will prompt you to wait if you approach.

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You’ll find a ring at the location where most quest-givers stand, which will prompt you to wait if you approach. (left), You can also choose to wait via your map menu. (right)

How to Advance Time in Hogwarts Legacy¶

At first you may not even notice the passage of time in the wizarding world. Your path is initially fairly linear, with little opportunity for meaningful diversion. By the time you reach Hogsmeade - which isn’t really all that far into the game - you’ll have to contend with the day/night cycle.

When it comes to most quests, passing time isn’t that pressing of an issue. If you return to a quest-giver’s location at the wrong time, you’ll notice a glowing ring where they would otherwise be standing. Interacting with this ring will prompt you to wait until the relevant character arrives, causing your character to unceremoniously lie around and wait. Not very dignified, but it works.

You can, of course, also just wait. Absolutely not ideal, but… it’s your life. On the minor plus side, waiting allows timed events to play out, if you really want to harvest whatever you have growing in the greenhouse.

Sometimes, however, the prompt to wait won’t appear, or you won’t be waiting on a quest-giver. In these cases you’ll have to manually advance the time, which is something that’s easy to miss unless you get a lucky loading screen tutorial tip. To force time to advance, bring up the map and press the button, at which point you’ll be informed that you’ll be waiting until night or day. Time is largely a binary system in Hogwarts Legacy, if you rest during the day, you’ll automatically stop at night, and vice-versa.