While these friend encounters are available outside of quests, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery players start them through a side quest that asks them to play Gobstones with their friends in the Courtyard. Like other interactions with their friends, this plays out as a series of questions, with the goal of providing enough right answers to complete the activity, level up the friend, and earn rewards.
Once a game of Gobstones is completed, players will unlock Meal with a Friend in the Great Hall. After players finish the meal and assuming they’ve progressed far enough to visit Hogsmeade, they will then be asked to complete the Drink Butterbeer encounter at the Three Broomsticks.
Players can routinely complete these friend encounters, and as previously stated, doing so will let them level up their friends and earn rewards. Early on, these rewards include free gems, but later the rewards are free energy. For example, when players level Rowan Khanna from level 5 to 6, they will earn 10 energy, and upon leveling Nymphadora Tonks from level 1 to 2, they will earn five gems.
These friend encounters are a good way for players to stock up on energy while they wait for new story chapters to be added to the game, and should help other players progress faster. However, it’s worth noting that there are serious cooldown timers on these friend encounters, and players will basically be able to complete each activity once per day.
Here are the locations for the friend encounters and their respective cooldown timers:
Play Gobstones (Lower Floor - West, Courtyard) - 16 hours Meal with a Friend (Lower Floor - West, Great Hall)- 10 hours Drink Butterbeer (Hogsmeade - Three Broomsticks) - 16 hours
While these cooldown timers are a little excessive, at least the friend encounters give players another way to earn free energy in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery besides tapping on random things around the castle. Plus, it should give players more things to do in the game while they wait for more story chapters to be added.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is out now for iOS and Android mobile devices.
