This is a beginners guide for Harry Potter: Magic Awakened for F2P players. It is one of the fun mobile games that has recently be released. I had a blast playing for a week now. I have compiled a list of things to avoid doing or mistakes that I have made while playing.
Read also: Deathly Dell Forbidden Forest Guide
Card Upgrading
Upgrading every card will essentially halt progression as gold is scarce later on. Gacha games always have a habit of showering you with large amount of gold and then trick you into using your wallet to buy more gold. Leveling up cards early on is easy and the gold cost will start to pile up as your card levels get higher.
While I do understand that having a higher spell book level is good, you will want to pick and choose the cards that you use often and avoid leveling the ones you don’t use.
For example, Oppugno is a card that you can use in multiple decks in Hermione, Harry, Hagrid etc. You can also upgrade cards that you think you will use in future content to round out your deck.
Here is what a paying player had to say about this:
It is important to be selective when leveling up cards and avoid using the Upgrade All option. Allowing the game to decide for you can be detrimental, wasting your Gold. Personally, I only tap on the Upgrade All button to check the required amount of Gold for leveling up. I take note of the Gold displayed on the screen and divide it by the difference between my current Spellbook level and the maximum potential level. For instance, the current display shows 36,750 Gold needed to upgrade from level 34 to level 39. By dividing 36,750 Gold by the 5-level difference, I get approximately 7,350 Gold. I prioritize leveling up my low-level cards only when I have accumulated enough Gold to increase my Spellbook level. Otherwise, it becomes futile as I would be upgrading unused cards.
Do Your Dailies
This goes without saying, do your dailies and you will always get more resources. You can also do dailies the next day if you missed a few of them, so that is not a big deal.
Resources
You can get up to 3 keys per day in duels. They can either be silver or gold keys. It is random though. Other additional resources you can get are 500 gold and 20 gems per day. These resources add up over time and you do not want to forget them as part of your daily routine.
In the Forbidden Forest, you can get 1 additional key per day. You do the Haunted Hallow and that is where it is found. Just like in duels, it is random as you can get either silver or gold keys. As for Haunted Hollow, you can stack up to 7 tries if you don’t have time to do it that particular day.
Deathly Dell is also something you want to do despite it being a longer run. The good thing is that you only need to do it twice per week.
Next up, Solo Forest is another area you want to do as it boosts your daily rewards. After completing level 10, there is a chance to drop epic echoes. At level 25, gold echoes can drop while you AFK. On top of that, you also get item drops.
If you are stuck on a specific level, click on the video tab on the left to see how other players have beaten that stage. You can just copy their deck to beat it.
In the forbidden forest, you also get thank you notes, You get 3 notes per run and you can use these to buy items you need for your progression. You can farm up to 10 per day. If you missed one day or 2, you can farm the extra ones the next day (stacks up to 50), so it is not too bad.
If you do not want to do the exploration with real players, just run it with NPCs and you will get them. Do keep in mind that you have to be strong enough to do it at least on level 1 though, alongside NPCs.
The most valuable currency, gems, are scarce and know where to spend it will help your progression tremendously. Spending them on keys are usually not the best choice and it is much better spent on special events that gives better rewards. At the time of writing, there is the mystery wheel going and it gives far better rewards than using them on keys.
Also, each month, there is a special card event where a specific card has a higher chance to obtain and spending your gems there is also a good way to go for cards you want. Pulling in this event is 150 gems per pull, which is better value than a golden key.
In this game, it does pay off to save it for the things you want. Do keep in mind to save enough to pull 50 times as it guarantees you that card.
As for items to buy in the daily shop as a F2P player, you will spend only gold on items you might need (such as rare cards). Avoid using gems for this.
Exploring Hogwarts will also net you some items from time to time. So that is something you can do if you have extra time on your hands.
You want to join a team so that you can trade cards and upgrade them. You will need tokens to do so but it allows you to trade cards you don’t need. After joining a team, make sure to do the team adventures as you get a lot of goodies as well. You get 2 attempts per day, giving you 100 team crests per day. You can then use these crests to buy items such as the Epic Trade Token weekly.
Echoes
Echoes are like special abilities that can enhance your deck. For example, Echo of Harry Potter enhances spell cards with an MP cost of less than 3. Crystals are used to upgrade the echoes but you want to be stingy with spending them on upgrading echoes and only use it on the ones that you use.
Much like gold, this resource gets scarce and the game will bait you into spending money for it. As for getting legendary echoes, you will have no problem getting them in about 2 months time. In other words, keep your crystals and gold for upgrading legendary echoes.
When it comes to upgrading echo, they always have max upgrade at default, causing you to “make the mistake” of upgrading when you upgrade it accidentally. Just don’t bother with it and use epic or are echoes to upgrade your legendary echoes.
Additional Tips for Progression
There are a few additional tips from itsViaElite (summarized for easy reading):
Prioritize progressing through the Story and Solo/Team Forest as much as possible. Clearing the Story provides numerous rewards, including free cards and tutorials on how to use them effectively.
If you can clear Story 2-1 before July 4th, you’ll receive 20 Ruby Keys. If you encounter difficulty in clearing a stage, after failing, you can access a video guide by clicking on the movie reel icon. This allows you to observe how other players successfully completed the stage and even replicate their deck strategies.
For Solo Forest, I recommend checking out the YouTube channel Magic Awakened Central. They have a playlist where they conquer forest levels using only Free-to-Play (F2P) decks, excluding Legendaries. By following their guides, I managed to overcome stages even when my Spellbook level was up to 6 levels below the recommended level.
Here is the playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRkW04WSi3GtP4JZE9_jbYbGsBj_GDrwR
While I’m still learning about Team Forest Exploration and believe there is room for improvement, I must mention that Crucio is an exceptional card. Fully upgrading it during a run can result in devastating damage. Personally, I cleared a stage despite being 4 levels below the recommended level by utilizing this card, unlocking the Deathly Dell early and gaining access to additional weekly rewards.
Now, let’s discuss the worth of purchasing Legendary/Mythic/Dark cards in the daily shop. Consider the opportunity cost and what else you could spend that 20,000/30,000 Gold on. How much can you level up your Spellbook or main cards? I bought Crucio for 30,000 Gold and have no regrets. Given its rarity and unavailability through other means, the advantages it provides in Forest runs outweigh the cost, in my opinion.
However, I recommend not purchasing more than one copy, as the returns diminish when leveling up subsequent copies. Many people advise against buying cards and suggest waiting for them to be pulled eventually. However, I prefer not leaving things up to chance. Whether it’s worth it or not is a personal decision, but currently, Crucio is the only card I believe is worth purchasing.
In the early stages of the game, avoid spending Gold on Echo Crystals. Echo Crystals are better saved for Legendary Echoes, where you can modify the buff given to specific cards. It’s more of an end-game currency. Use Echoes you don’t need to level up the ones you do, and save those Crystals for your valuable Legendary Echoes. Gold is best reserved for purchasing necessary card copies and leveling up your Spellbook.
How should you spend your Gems? Although many suggest spending them on Ruby and Clockturn Keys, I believe it offers a poor return on investment unless you are lucky. Let’s take the Ron banner as an example. You are guaranteed to obtain Ron after 30 draws, which would cost up to 4,050 Gems (27 Keys x 150 Gems). In comparison, you can purchase Ron from the Daily Shop for 30,000 Gold, equivalent to 3,000 Gems.
Considering the draw probabilities, you are more likely to obtain Common and Rare cards, which are worth less than the potential extra 1,050 Gems you might spend on Ruby Keys. It’s a matter of personal preference and willingness to take risks. Personally, I would only use free keys for drawing or use a combination, ensuring that I don’t spend more Gems than the card’s worth in the shop (3,000 Gems for Mythic/Dark, 2,000 Gems for Legendary).
The Wheel and Clockturn Keys offer even worse value. The most valuable item from them in terms of gameplay is the wand skin, and even then, its worth is debatable. It requires 90 pulls to clear the entire wheel, and each Clockturn Key costs 200 Gems.
Thus, you could potentially spend up to 18,000 Gems to obtain it. In contrast, there is a wand (Whisperer) that occasionally becomes available for as little as 300 premium Jewels ($4.99). Although it lacks the revive effect, it provides Exploration Attributes +15. If you are entirely F2P, it might be worth saving up for a good wand since it can’t be obtained elsewhere. However, it would likely take months of diligent saving, during which you could have spent the Gems on Cards and Gold.
The best way to spend Gems at this time is on Cards in the Daily Shop and converting them to Gold. Nevertheless, I still recommend hoarding Gems in case they introduce better deals in the future. Personally, I have expressed this feedback in the game surveys they sent out and hope they will provide better value for Gems in the future.
Beginner Guide Video
Here is a video of a top player in the Taiwan server playing in global:
Hopefully these tips will help F2p players figure out the game and have a smooth progression in Harry Potter: Magic Awakened!
There is also a deck builder database if you want to see what each card does.