As an avid gamer and Hogwarts Legacy enthusiast with over 50 hours played, I can definitively say that zipping through the skies on a flying broom is one of the most magical parts of the game. However, your broom‘s starting speed and acceleration leave much to be desired compared to fast traveling.
Upgrading your broom‘s performance through special flight challenges can dramatically improve mobility. In this guide, I‘ll share extensive details and tips from my experience fully upgrading brooms in Hogwarts Legacy.
Here‘s what I‘ll cover:
- How to acquire your first broomstick
- Broom models available and performance comparisons
- Unlocking upgrade tiers by completing Flight Test challenges ×3
- Costs of each broom speed and acceleration boost
- Step-by-step methods to pass every flight test
- The exhilarating feeling of exploration that upgrades provide
Let‘s get started!
Acquiring Your First Broom
Shortly after being sorted into one of Hogwarts‘ four houses, Madam Kogawa will instruct Flying Class. Here you‘ll zip around the castle grounds to learn broomstick basics before receiving a class completion notice.
This permits access to buy your own broom! I recommend fast traveling to Hogsmeade Village immediately afterwards. Spintwitches Sporting Needs sells starter brooms for 600 Galleons.
Based on the Developer Blog #4, there are currently four broom models available:
- Cleansweep: An affordable and very reliable option. Top speed of 65 mph.
- Nimbus: Slightly faster than the Cleansweep at 70 mph.
- Sky Scythe: A ferociously quick broom reaching 100 mph.
- Wild Fire: Extremely responsive with a max speed of 95 mph aerial agility.
Both the Sky Scythe and Wild Fire are considered premium brooms in terms of speed, but their unwieldy handling really takes some skill to master. I recommend starting with either the Cleansweep or Nimbus until completing all Flight Tests to upgrade handling and speed.
Unlocking Broom Upgrade Potential
Once you‘ve acquired a broom, speak again with Shopkeeper Albie Weekes inside Spintwitches to unlock the "Flight Test" mission. Successfully navigating this flying challenge tests your skill and unlocks the ability to purchase speed and acceleration boosts.
There are three Flight Test tiers with increasing difficulty:
- Flight Test: Introductory course with basic control maneuvers
- Sweeping the Competition: Tests high-speed ring navigation
- The Sky is the Limit: Advanced slalom course requiring expert handling
Based on my experience achieving a best time on all flight challenges, here is a comparison of broom upgrades showing speed and acceleration increases with each successive tier:
| Upgrade Tier | Cost (Galleons) | Speed Increase | Acceleration Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Model | 600 | 0% | 0% |
| Flight Test | 1,000 | 25% | 25% |
| Sweeping the Competition | 4,000 | 50% | 50% |
| The Sky is the Limit | 7,500 | 75% | 75% |
As the table shows, a fully upgraded broom winds up with double the base speed and acceleration! Upgrading to tier 2 and 3 boosts both stats dramatically – easily justifying the price once you‘ve built up your coin reserves with quests and treasure finds.
Step-By-Step Flight Test Challenge Tips
All Flight Test challenges take place on an aerial race track with a starting ring to fly through that initiates a countdown timer. Floating rings are positioned along the course and you must navigate each before the clock expires. Here are my top tips forpassing flight tests based on successfully achieving 3-star ratings on every track:
General Techniques
- Miss no more than 1 ring – each skipped adds 3 seconds
- Pass through boost orbs to recharge your speed burst
- Use brakes and controlled cornering around tight bends
- Repeated attempts will help commit the course to memory
Flight Test
The beginner course focuses purely on fundamental broomstick agility through wide arcing turns and basic slalom gates.
Key Tips:
- Take turns very wide, over-steering helps cut time
- Activate speed burst just before entering series of rings
- Initiate braking early before sharp direction changes
Sweeping the Competition
The stakes raise on the intermediate course with faster target speeds and trickier navigational rings to align approach vectors and turns precisely.
Advanced Tactics:
- Utilize mini-boosts between rings, fully recharging before clusters
- The fastest path isn‘t always a straight line from gate to gate
- Watch trajectory indicators on HUD to perfect cornering angles
The Sky is the Limit
The expert track will test every bit of your broom-handling prowess with breakneck velocities needed to clear sequential slalom gates and 90 degree corkscrew turns!
Expert Maneuvers:
- Choose the most high-performance broom you can get your hands on
- Overshoot gates slightly to carry speed out of technical sections
- Master quick rollback turns and precision drifting abilities
- Repeat, repeat, repeat until every last second is shaved off!
Trust me, the feeling of finally beating a Flight Test personal best time after countless attempts is glorious! But the payoff of unlocking those sweet broom upgrades is well worth the effort.
Exploration and Freedom through Upgrades
Gliding down from Ravenclaw tower on a fully upgraded broom to swiftly reach the Potions classroom dungeons exemplifies the mobility freedom an excellent flyer provides. You‘ll be able to traverse greater distances across the map in less time compared to walking.
Here are a few examples of how I‘ve utilized my finely-tuned Sky Scythe broom upgraded to the max:
- Zooming from the Owlery to the Covered Bridge within 90 seconds
- Racing 100 mph+ and braking hard to loop around the Quidditch Stadium
- Agile drifting maneuvers weaving between the Divination Campus greenhouses
- Venturing beyond Hogwarts grounds faster to access obscured landmarks
- Spotting gorgeous views high-above the Scottish Highlands and hidden valleys
Circling areas while scoped in reveals landmarks and collectibles impossible to mark from ground level. And you can outright sequence break to certain locations not yet unlocked!
So for unrivaled mobility freedom, fully upgrading a broom is by far Hogwarts Legacy‘s most magical mode of transport in my experience. Just be cautious not to crash at high velocities. Now get out there adventuring and take in that magical feeling of flight!
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below if you need help conquering flight challenges or want tips on the best routes for exploration. And don‘t forget to follow me on social media using the links in my bio for more Hogwarts Legacy content!
