Hogwarts Legacy silently shuts up annoying NPC

floo powder silencio — (Image credit: Tangerie on Nexus Mods)

Hogwarts Legacy received a recent patch that was mainly focused on bug fixes and ray tracing. Yet the patch notes omitted a change, swiftly spotted by players and subsequently confirmed by developer Avalanche, that is more of a quality of life improvement. They've shut up those bloody statues.

Ignatia Wildsmith is a long-dead witch, remembered and immortalised in the wizarding world for her invention of Floo Powder. Nevermind the lore: Floo travel is what you use to fast-travel around Hogwarts Legacy. In-game you do this by going up to busts of Ignatia Wildsmith which, this being a magical world, chatter away at you. And boy does Ignatia go on about how great her invention is and travel broadening the mind and oh my word just let me fast travel please.

"Just confirmed an additional feature in this patch that didn't make it into the patch notes," said Chandler Wood, Avalanche's community manager. "Reduced the frequency of Ignatia Wildsmith's lines (a significant reduction), so while travel is definitely more convenient with Floo powder, you won't have to hear about it constantly."

I'm probably overdoing it but Ignatia was annoying, more for the frequency with which you end up fast travelling than anything especially wrong with the character or performance: It was all just a bit incessant and players have been complaining about it for months.

Harry Potter fans being the calm and reasonable sorts they are, of course, some have declared the gobby inventor a Voldemort-level annoyance, which does seem a bit much. Others meanwhile will probably not appreciate the change, and spare a thought for this player: "Ignatia is my best friend forever and I can’t imagine how miserable my life would be if she didn’t exist in it."

Ignatia does, of course, still exist. And she still talks to the player, just nowhere near as much.

Despite the ongoing controversy around the game, Hogwarts Legacy has had a successful launch, with over one billion dark wizards murdered so far. The director says there are "no current plans" for DLC, though expect that to change, and the modding scene is now in full swing: Perhaps the best recent idea being a mod that lets you cast spells with your voice. Though Ignatia may now find that one rather difficult to enjoy.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."