I’ve been playing Wizards Unite (WU) for about a year now, since the app first launched, and somehow haven’t written about it yet. Like Pokémon Go (PoGo), my interest in the game is a blend of geekiness and fitness. In fact, I frequently run Pokémon Go and Wizards Unite at the same time, bouncing between them to accomplish tasks at local inns, greenhouses, and fortresses (WU) and Pokestops & gyms (PoGo). The locations are the same, they’re just used in different ways.
Not surprisingly for a Harry Potter-themed game, potions are important. Ingredients are acquired through visits to greenhouses, both by picking a random ingredient (repeatable every 5 minutes) or by planting seeds that you’ve collected. Ingredients can also be collected from random appearances on the ground, or in some gifts from your friends.
Spell energy is another essential part of the game, and that can be collected from inns, gifts, or random appearances on the ground. All of the random appearances have increased in frequency with the worldwide shelter-at-home orders. Spell energy is used to collect foundables – individual items that have to be salvaged by casting a specific spell – and in wizarding challenges, which take place at fortresses.
Wizarding challenges can be faced alone or with up to four other people. Before the lockdowns, this was always at a fortress with other players that were physically present. More recently, the Knight Bus became available, taking players to the virtual Fortress at Hogwarts Castle, where you can team up with whoever else happens into the challenge level as you’re prepping for battle.
The fortress challenges feature several types of combatants, with each of the three available professions (auror, magizoologist, and professor) having advantages and disadvantages against different opponent types. In an ideal challenge, each of the three professions is represented, and at the higher level, many estimulo, which boost your spells, and healing potions.
Part of the fun of the battles is to turn on AR, or Augmented Reality, mode. You can have it on for the entire gameplay, at some cost to your phone battery of course, but I find it fun just for the battles. Depending on how open the area is, your opponent’s size can vary. If I’m right up at my computer when I start the combat, I can end up fighting a midget werewolf perched on my keyboard.
But what I really enjoy is focusing on a cat as I’m starting the combat, so I’m fighting to defend the cat. Here you can see Arwen ignoring the pixie flying above her as I fight it. The game actually captures an image as you line up the combat, so if the cat walks away halfway through, your screen doesn’t reflect that change.
Between the two games, I have set myself a minimum walking goal each week, in addition to my other workout routines. Both games initially launched with GPS distance tracking, but later added Adventure Sync, which tracks distance and location while the game is closed. In other words, if I have my phone in my purse while grocery shopping, or in my pocket while using the treadmill, the games count that distance towards in-game goals. So fun and fitness combined!