Exciting news for fans of the Wizarding World - the mobile card-trading game Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is finally launching across mobile this year. It's nowhere near the first time we've been able to explore Hogwarts and cast spells on mobile, but it looks set to be one of the most detailed and expansive Harry Potter experiences yet, and a great one for the roleplaying community the series has fostered over the decades.
Our Harry Potter Magic Awakened everything we know guide will run through all the details we've got right now on NetEase's latest game. That includes a snippet of gameplay, an idea of how the card-trading mechanic works, and some speculative information on when the game may come out. Check out our guide on how to play the Harry Potter Magic Awakened beta right now if you don't mind starting the game fresh when it actually launches.
Before we get deep into the mandrakes, consider loading up a couple other guides if you're already deep into the mobile gaming space. We have Cookie Run: Kingdom codes to get you started in that RPG, and an Awaken: Chaos Era tier list for those looking for something more high-fantasy.
What Is Harry Potter: Magic Awakened?
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is a mobile card game set ten years after the Battle of Hogwarts seen in the original end of the series - The Deathly Hallows. You play as a brand-new Hogwarts student recruited by Rubeus Hagrid to learn the ways of a wizard. Your first task in Hogwarts is to locate a missing student called Ivy, uncovering a deep mystery in the meantime.
As promised by PortKey Games, plenty of iconic characters from throughout the franchise return for Magic Awakened, giving players plenty of familiar faces to encounter between the fresh-faced students of a more modern Hogwarts. From Luna Lovegood to Professor McGonagall, there's a fair chance your favourite will appear at some point or another. There's no word yet on whether the titular wizard will make an appearance, but the chances are pretty high.
Harry Potter Magic Awakened tier list - Every card ranked
Harry Potter Magic Awakened tier list
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How Do I Play Harry Potter Magic Awakened?
Harry Potter Magic Awakened is primarily a card game, but there's a springing of an MMORPG in there as well. Between wandering around Hogwarts to progress the story, you're fighting it out with spells and summons through a TCG-like battle system.
Cards generally focus on spells, which are unlocked through random gacha pulls in the in-game store. You collect spells that work well in combination with others, and then upgrade them to pack more of a punch.
Each card has a cooldown period, meaning you have to balance attacks so you're never left exposed. Battles take place against real people online, as well as NPCs in the game's story mode, so there's a PVP and PVE element just as you'd expect from a game that will ultimately ask you to throw it a buck (or thirty).
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Unlike games such as YuGiOh Master Duel, where card games are the only facet of gameplay, Harry Potter Magic Awakened is slightly more varied. There are a bunch of smaller gameplay mechanics, such as wand crafting, interacting with your own pet, brewing potions, and even playing Quidditch.
Like we said, it's a proper Harry Potter MMORPG experience. With so many kids and adults wishing they'd gone to Hogwarts themselves, this is certainly a good avenue to live that wizard life vicariously through your smart device. There's a lot of finer details available on the official Harry Potter: Magic Awakened website right now. Give that a good going over if you're looking for every little scrap of into and artwork.
What Are Harry Potter Magic Awakened Cards?
Broadly speaking, cards are the main combat item in Harry Potter Magic Awakened. Each card is unsurprisingly based around a spell within the wizarding world, which you drag onto your enemy to deal damage or impact their stats.
As mentioned, you can't just spam cards: cooldown periods exist to space things out and make fights fair. Strategically speaking, you'll be able to upgrade cards to reduce their cooldown period, buff their perks, and equip cards that can work in tandem with base spells to make up for any shortcomings.
Sadly, it doesn't seem like Harry Potter: Magic Awakened takes any cues from the Harry Potter TCG that first released in 2001 to coincide with the first film's release.
That nostalgic card game focused primarily on the early years of Harry's Hogwarts adventure and sadly went out of print in 2003. Instead of reviving that game's deck as a nice nod to fans in this game, it seems like Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is its own beast. It went into development not long after the TCG boom of games like Hearthstone, which would explain some of its familiar mechanics.
When Is The Harry Potter Magic Awakened Release Date?
Currently, Harry Potter Magic Awakened doesn't have a confirmed release date. The worldwide launch of the game was announced on February 10, 2022, but no release date was given in the trailer. All we have to go off right now is a tentative 2022 release window, with a "later this year" placeholder still floating around recent social communications..
Given pre-registration is now live, it's likely that we'll hear more news on the actual release date sooner rather than later.
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Harry Potter: Magic Awakened released in China last year and quickly topped the charts, beating out long-standing titles from monoliths like Tencent. With a result like that, it's unsurprising to see the game get a wider release.
It's safe to say that most of the work on the basic game is already done. The content is all there and playable in other parts of the word. As such, the period between announcement and worldwide release will mostly focus on localisation and translation, with the developers gauging feedback from the current beta test before setting a solid date.
And that's about all we know about Harry Potter: Magic Awakened right now. We'll update this page as more info drops, but for now, consider checking out our list of the best mobile card games on Android for similar titles.
And if you're deep into YuGiOh Master Duel right now, our YuGiOh Master Duel deck tier list is worth a look. We've even gone into detail about how to unlock its dozens of YuGiOh Master Duel secret packs as well.