The Hogwarts Legacy Map With Floating Candles is one of the earliest secrets you will encounter in the open-world Harry Potter adventure. Placed directly on the main story path, you’ll more than likely come across it with out really trying. But while it’s easy to find, the puzzle that the floating candles map presents you with isn’t so easy to solve.
Well, to help you out, we’re going to take you through how we solved it and found the floating candles map’s treasure during our Hogwarts Legacy review playthrough. You won’t need to worry about combat in the Ghost of Our Love quest, so don’t go spending hours perfecting your Hogwarts Legacy builds for this one. This map is one of many mysteries that have made Hogwarts Legacy one of the most intriguing RPG games of recent times. So, grab your wands – or rather your best PlayStation controller or best Xbox controller – and let’s dive into solving it.
Hogwarts Legacy floating candles map explained
In Hogwarts Legacy, the Map With Floating Candles is an item needed to start the Ghost Of Our Love side quest. This map points to a secret location somewhere within the game where treasure awaits. The map’s item description differs depending on your house, and it will also appear in a different location for each house too.
The Ghost of Our Love side quest is one that’s definitely worth completing as you’ll get rewarded with a loot-filled chest at the end.
Hogwarts Legacy floating candles map location
The Hogwarts Legacy floating candles map has four potential locations, depending on which house you’re sorted into. For it to appear, players will also need to have one of four house-exclusive quests active – these quests will all essentially lead you straight to the floating candles map.
Here are the four separate locations you need to look out for during those house-exclusive quests.
Gryffindor – Hogsmeade Graveyard
During Gryffindor’s ‘The Hunt for the Missing Pages’ quest, you will find yourself in a graveyard speaking with a ghost named Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore. Straight after the cutscene ends, you can find it sitting on a grave just in front of you, situated between a tomb and another ghost.
Hufflepuff – Upper Hogsfield
When you travel to Upper Hogsfield as part of the ‘Prisoner of Love’ quest, you’ll find the map by searching a large chest sitting behind Claire Beaumont’s stall in the village. This stall itself is easy to find as it has a red canopy and red bunting, but the chest itself is harder spot if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Ravenclaw – Hogwarts Owlery
During the quest ‘Ollivander’s Hierloom’, you can find it on the very top floor of the owlery. While completing the puzzle to find Jackdaw Statues, take the final ladder up to the top floor of the tower, and once there take a few steps to your left so that you walk towards the south side of the tower. There, you’ll find the Map With Floating Candles item lying on the ground.
Slytherin – Apollonia’s secret grotto
While on the ‘Scrope’s Last Hope’ quest, you’ll by tasked to investigate a grotto underneath Hogwarts Castle’s Great Hall. Once you’ve entered the grotto and finished speaking to the ghost of Richard Jackdaw, turn around and you’ll see a large chest tucked in the corner of the room. Open it, and you’ll find the map.
So, you’ve now got your Map With Floating Candles, but how are you meant to solve it as part of your newly-unlocked Ghost of Our Love side quest?
Hogwarts Legacy floating candles map solution
To solve the Hogwarts Legacy Map With Floating Candles and find the secret treasure’s location, head to the Forbidden Forest Floo Flame, just to the north of Hogwarts, that we’ve circled on the map below.
Once there, use your Lumos spell next to the big main bridge at night. This will reveal some candles, which will float in front of you and start to lead you into the nearby forest.
All you have to do is simply follow the path that the candles take you down, and you’ll eventually arrive at your final destination: a romantic setting of a table and two chairs, surrounded by yet more floating candles. As you arrive, a chest will spawn in on your right. Crack it open and you can collect your loot.
So there you have it, that’s how to find and solve the Hogwarts Legacy floating candles map so that you can complete the Ghost of Our Love side quest. It is quite simple, but if you don’t have a keen eye and a good knowledge of the map, it can leave you stumped for a while. For more secrets and guides, be sure to check out our Hogwarts Legacy walkthrough which is filled with useful information.
If you’re looking to make your Hogwarts Legacy adventures more immersive, then be sure to check out some of the best PS5 headsets and best Xbox headsets so you can hear every creak of a castle door and every hoot of an owl in the crispest quality possible.
Hogwarts Legacy has drawn considerable criticism during its development, largely due to the fact that the creator of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling, has made a number of transphobic remarks on social media in recent years.
While Avalanche has confirmed that J.K. Rowling is not “directly involved” in the development of Hogwarts Legacy, it has been working with “her team” and Portkey Games, a Warner Bros. label dedicated to launching new experiences inspired by J.K. Rowling’s original stories. It is currently unclear whether she will earn any royalties from the game’s sale, but it is likely given it is based on her original body of work.
If you would like to learn more about transgender rights or lend your support, we’d encourage you to check out the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US and Mermaids in the UK.