Hogwarts Legacy arachnophobia mode arrives just in time for launch

Hogwarts Legacy arachnophobia mode
(Image credit: Tyler C. / Avalanche Software)

In a fantastical world where people get turned into all sorts of animals and objects, the modder behind Hogwarts Legacy's arachnophobia mode chose to turn all the spiders into red cubes. It's not the most creative solution, but it's also their first mod and it's ready to go for the game's full release today.

The Hogwarts Legacy arachnophobia mode does exactly what you'd think it would do: it removes all the spider enemies in the game and replaces them with much less threatening red boxes. Its creator, Norskpl, says the mod works in the late-game Tomb of Treachery location. The assumption is that all the spiders in the game—including the bosses—use a similar model throughout.

Norskpl asks users to let them know if that's not the case with a seemingly unintentional joke that made me chuckle: "If there is a spider model that I skipped and has not been swapped, please write about it in the bugs section."

To install the mod, you need to have a Nexus Mods account and will need to download Norskpl's zip file. Once you have that, you just need to unzip it in the game folder, which can be found by right-clicking the game in your Steam library, hovering over manage, and selecting browse local files. You can also navigate to the game folder in file explorer. The default location should resemble this: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Hogwarts Legacy. Norskpl provided a video tutorial, too. 

The people listened and put a few issues with the mod in the bugs section. There are dead spiders inside the Tomb of Treachery that don't get removed, and if you set the cube spiders on fire they burn as if they were still using their old models. Both bugs are filed under "being looked at," by Norskpl.

Hogwarts Legacy launched today and came with a small patch. Norskpl says patches shouldn't alter the mod, so once you have it working, you should be living spider-free for the foreseeable future. 

Associate Editor

Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He's done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He's interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.