Portkey Games’ Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery takes you through the seven years of schooling at the titular school of witchcraft and wizardry. You’ll be going to classes, studying spells, brewing potions, and flying on broomsticks while trying to unravel the secrets of the cursed vaults and their connection to your mysterious brother Jacob.

Like the book series, however, the heart of the Hogwarts experience lies not in books, quills, and wand-waving (though expect plenty of that!), but rather in forging new friendships and helping others when they need it – even if they may not deserve it!

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As you progress through the story, you’ll meet new classmates like Penny Haywood, Ben Copper, and even Bill Weasley and Tonks. Each character has a distinct personality, and skill set. Aside from getting to enjoy new dialogue and interactions with the characters, there are three major reasons you should invest time in bolstering friendships:

1. More interactions with this character

The best reason to improve your friendships in Hogwarts Mystery is to see these characters play a bigger role in your own adventures. A good friend will come to your defense when you’re in trouble, be it with a bullying professor (Snape) or a quarrelsome student (Merula). They’ll speak their part in defending you and will try to help get you out of trouble.

Build up a strong enough rapport and that friend may accompany you on the various quests you’ll find yourself on in the game, such as investigating the cursed vaults. If you ever see a friend’s level number on a dialogue choice you have, it means that that choice is locked unless you’re at least at that trust level in your relationship.

A beginner guide to Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

2. Gems and energy

Your more immediate reward for boosting friendships will come in the form of energy or gems. Once you earn enough points to raise a friendship (see below) to the next level, you get a reward of either five gems or between five and 15 energy, depending on what friendship level you reach with them.

Energy is how you’ll do pretty much everything in Hogwarts Mystery, so the boost is helpful. Don’t worry if your energy points are capped out when the level up triggers; you’ll be awarded excess points so you’ll see something like 30/25. Gems are the game’s currency for unlocking quick energy, and receiving them through friendship boosts is a whole lot better than having to spend actual money just to regain energy. It’s definitely worth saving up on these too.

For more tips on how to save energy in Hogwarts Mystery, you can check out our guide here:

5 tips to avoid spending money in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

3. New clothes, accessories, and hairstyles

Lastly, there are some character customization options that can only be unlocked by maxing out your friendships with various characters. All characters will cap at level ten. You’ll unlock a pair of stylish glasses from Rowan, for example, or a hairstyle from Tonks. If you’d like to see all the rewards you can get, you can check them out here.

Strengthen your friendships

The best way to improve your relationship with a given character is to spend more time with them. The best places to do this are meals within the Great Hall or Gobstones out in the Courtyard. Both of these can be done an unlimited amount of times, and will refresh every few hours or so.

When you elect to do one of these activities, the game will ask you with whom you’d like to spend your time. Select your choice and a mini-game will initiate. Both encounters are a series of multiple choice questions that will vary depending on who you’re playing or eating with.

With Gobstones, for example, your goal is to win the game – usually by distracting your friend (cheap shot, right?). Cater your responses to best suit their distractions (Penny loves to talk about potions) and you’ll get the maximum points to level up your friendship fastest.

One word of caution, however – all of your responses in these mini-games are governed by the game’s three attributes: Courage, Empathy, and Knowledge. Before you start the mini-game make sure your stats are at least matching the recommended level. If you’re above the threshold you’ll receive a bonus for every answer you give, but if you’re too far below the recommended level you receive a penalty – even if you picked the best response. If you find these mini-games to be overly difficult you might consider taking more classes to up your attribute levels.

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