Once you’ve battled your way to the Final Repository of Ancient Magic, through trolls and goblins aplenty, Professor Fig will ask the big question: ‘What do you intend to do with it?’

The game gives you an option, allowing you to choose between ‘I intend to open it’ and ‘I intend to keep it contained here’. But which one should you pick? The choice, of course, is yours. And we would say it comes down to personal preference and how you’ve been approaching the game.

If you’ve been tending towards evil in Hogwarts Legacy throughout your hours with the game, you should choose to open the Repository to complete your arc and embrace the dark side.

But if your character is more of a goodie two-shoes, you should opt to keep it contained. Fig will ask if you’re sure and then the game will move on. We’ll get into what this choice actually changes below, so this is your final warning for major Hogwarts Legacy spoilers!

Hogwarts Legacy spoilers: How do the endings differ?

Whichever option you choose, things don’t exactly go to plan. Regardless of what you say to Professor Fig, Ranrok the goblin will burst in and claim the dark power for himself. He will transform into a big magic dragon and offer you a very tough boss battle.

If you chose to ‘open it’, embracing the ‘evil’ ending, Professor Fig will be killed by the Ranrok Dragon in the cut-scene before the fight. This is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, with a massive pile of debris being walloped onto your kindly mentor. After the fight, the player-character will absorb the dark energy and their eyes will glow red for a brief moment. This seems to imply that your character has become more powerful and could potentially go down a dark path in future.

If you chose to ‘keep it contained’, opting for the ‘good’ ending, Professor Fig will still die. Although he survives the fight in this case, he will over-exert himself and pass away as you try to put the ancient power back in the Repository. The Hogwarts Legacy ending is something of a no-win scenario, then. You’ll hear Fig’s eulogy from Professor Black and Professor Weasley either way.

Also, it’s worth noting that the player-character does not immediately gain any special powers if they do imbibe the ancient magic. Your choice in this scene does not impact your post-game experience and you will still have the same side missions left regardless of what you pick. Sebastian’s storyline involving his sister, for example, is not impacted by your choice in the main story. We’ll have to wait for a Hogwarts Legacy DLC or sequel to learn more about your character’s future!

Hogwarts Legacy ending explained: What is the ‘true ending’? 

Shortly after the cut-scenes are finished, you will receive a summons to Professor Weasley’s office. She will take a look at your Field Guide and tell you that you still have some work to do, allowing you to go back into the world and keep working on your side hustles.

Once your character reaches level 34, you’ll be able to trigger a mission called The House Cup, which is the last of the Hogwarts Legacy chapters. If you slog through side missions to make it to this point, you’ll be rewarded with a montage of scenes that sees the House Cup being awarded and the students finishing their school year. (Spoiler alert, just like in the Harry Potter films, your house wins!)

This final set of scenes is being called the game’s true ending in many places online. You’ll need to get to that point if you want to collect all the Hogwarts Legacy trophies and see the credits roll. There’s no post-credits scene to speak of, but you will get to keep playing after the credits if you somehow still have things to do!