Hogwarts Mystery - How to Win Duels Easily

This article is aimed at helping players win duels and do better in duels more consistently in Hogwarts Mystery.

FIRST, getting a list of the spells is very useful, especially as the game provides very little information on your spells.

• A helpful resource for duelling is the Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery guide, a huge Google Sheets with a lot of game data.
• There is a worksheet with the various spell icons so you can tell what's coming at you if the game gives you insight into what the opponent is casting.
• It also estimates the probabilities of various conditions inflicted on your opponents, and it's really quite interesting how chancy they are and how many spells are actually just not that good.
• An alternative resource, but one that is maybe less often updated, is the Hogwarts Mystery Walkthrough site, which has a duelling spells page with the spells sorted by stance.

SECOND, understanding some of the matching mechanics is useful.

• In general, duelling tries to match you with opponents that have a similar stat distribution as your own. So if your Courage is 20 you can expect your opponents to have scores around 18-22.
• Your opponent's school year is NOT locked with your own. So if you are a 3rd year, you might still get matched with someone in 5th or even 6th year, as long as their stats are close to your own. This means they can have advanced spells that sometimes gives them a substantial advantage depending on what you have.
• Regardless of their stats, opponents do not do extra damage to you if their stats are higher. However, you can do extra damage to them if your stats are higher.
• This is not always true of event enemies, who can have a higher-stat damage bonus.

THIRD, take stock of your spells.

• Medium damage generally means 10 points. High Damage like Flipendo and Depulso are 15 points. 
• Some spells are "useful in duels" only and have no progression. Others like Incendio have progression -- when you use them, it advances your skill meter and when that is full, you get a small reward. Typically this happens during classes when you cast the spell, or the events where you help McGonagall by going around Hogwarts and casting spells to help students.
• When an enemy is low on health and you can finish them off with a spell, you can choose a spell that has progression to advance that toward a reward.

HOW TO CHOOSE SPELLS - Damage race

• On the surface, duelling is very chancy in Hogwarts Mystery, in part because you never know when your opponent will be able to Stun you, or if you can succeed in Stunning your opponent.
• The basic way to try to win is to inflict more damage on your opponent faster and sooner than they do. This sounds very simple, but it is still not reliable.
• We do not recommend low-damage spells that inflict conditions because you cannot guarantee a condition will be inflicted.

IF YOU ARE STUNNED, DRAW / counter

• In the case where you are Stunned, the best move is to go for a draw with your opponent (i.e., use the same type of move, such as Sneaky versus Sneaky)
• If you win or if you lose, you just waste your action because you are stunned, and your opponent gets to act.
• But if you counter (e.g., you both choose Aggressive), your opponent does NOT get to act and the person with lower Health gets some healing.

QUEST ENEMIES often (always?) have fixed sequences

• If you are having difficulty, watch their sequences. A common one for creatures like Werewolves and Spiders appears to be:
• Sneaky, Defensive, Aggressive, Defensive, repeat
• This can be important because some like Werewolves and Spiders have Defensive or other moves that have a very high probability (possibly guaranteed) of Stunning. In such cases, pay more attention to the sequence and countering when appropriate, than the suggestions below.

EARLY GAME: Expelliarmus

In the very early game, you only have four moves: Expelliarmus, Rictusempra, Throw Vial, Wiggenweld Potion. Your best bet is to just keep choosing Expelliarmus unless you are Stunned. Here's why:

• Defense > Aggressive, so at most your opponent will use Throw Vial, which does the same damage as your Expelliarmus, except your attack will also have a chance to stun them.
• Aggressive > Sneaky, so if you try Rictusempra they might get to go first and damage you plus possibly stun you.
• Also, even if you got to act first, Rictusempra does little damage and has only a low chance of stun. You are unlikely to stun them and you will be behind in the damage race.

YEAR 1 CHAPTER 7: Flipendo

Once you learn Flipendo, that will be your go-to spell. Here's why:

• Aggressive > Sneaky, but their Expelliarmus does less damage. Even if they always go first, you will still win first, UNLESS they stun you -- but the probability of a stun is low.

Things are less clear if they can use Incendio, because that can out-damage you because of the two turns of burn for 10 damage each. Incendio is a Year 2 spell, but you can still be matched against them before you can learn it yourself.

YEAR 2 CHAPTER 6: Incendio

Although Incendio only has a chance of inflicting damage over time, you will still want to use this over Flipendo because you can at least counter any use of Incendio against you. The damage over time is at least fairly reliable at an estimated 70% but to be honest it's still quite chancy.

If you have inflicted a damage over time on them, it cannot stack (but it can refresh the duration), so switch to Flipendo afterwards. Otherwise, try Incendio again.

YEAR 3 CHAPTER 4: Depulso

Like Flipendo, Depulso is a reliable-damage spell with nothing fancy. Since Aggressive > Sneaky, you want to use Depulso instead of Flipendo. You will either counter an enemy's Depulso or act before their Flipendo.

Although Incendio can do more damage over 3 turns, Depulso damage is more reliable, so I recommend Depulso over Incendio. Also, enemies of Year 4-6 try other spells as well and don't often use Incendio. Often they use Expelliarmus, Depulso, and Flipendo. So if you use Depulso, you are typically ahead of the damage race.