The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament, Gladwin Moon’s Alohom*ora quest, is another mission that can bug out, and softlock or even hardlock you if you get unlucky.
Thankfully, there are workarounds, so this guide will tell you about the Gladwin Moon bug in general, precautions to take, how to fix it if you’ve had it happen, and what to be wary of with future quests.
If you’ve come to this guide because you have run into this bug and are looking for a fix, skip straight to the second section of the article (How to fix the Gladwin Moon bug in Hogwarts Legacy), as the first part will be dedicated to explaining the bug and giving the context for the sake of precision.
Spoiler status: This article contains no real main story spoilers. It will, however, describe two mid-game quests. Nothing further than The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament and The Man Behind The Moons will be mentioned.
The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament And The Gladwin Moon Bugs In Hogwarts Legacy
After a series of main story quests, you get an owl post from Gladwin Moon, the caretaker of Hogwarts blessing us with his amazing intonations, that triggers a quest that will unlock Alohom*ora.
That quest, The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament, has the player meet with him between the Great Hall and the Grand Staircase during the day. There, the caretaker will tell us about his phobia of Demiguises, how someone snuck them everywhere around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, and how he’ll need our help removing them.
The first two statues are located inside the Faculty tower and are removed as part of the quest. To that end, Gladwin teaches us Alohom*ora (continuing the tradition of this spell being taught by people who aren’t professors in the games of that franchise), and a sneaking section ensues.
The Faculty tower is off-limits to students, so this is another sneaking section of the game where the player has to make their way around the tower to retrieve the two demiguises’ moons while being invisible and while avoiding Filch and Ms. Norris- I mean, the prefects and professors.
And here comes the issue with the Gladwin Moon Quest bug in Hogwarts Legacy…
Abandoning the Gladwin Moon quest while it is ongoing results in a game-breaking bug.
- The player is considered as still doing the quest, preventing them from completing any other quests or traveling via Floo powder, “unless abandoning the current quest.”
- While autosaves keep taking place, the player is no longer able to manually save either for the same reason.
- The mission no longer appears in the list of quests, and there is no option to abandon it anywhere. Considering that it was technically already abandoned, it has lost its abandonment conditions, such as leaving the area.
- The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament has to be restarted from the beginning, but while Mr. Moon is properly there during the day and starts talking to the player as they’re approaching, he can’t be interacted with to start the quest again.
- The mission can also no longer be tracked. You’ll find its location in the pictures below, to be able to head back there.
In other words, that’s a big ol’ softlock if you don’t have a workaround. So here we are.
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How To Fix The Gladwin Moon Bug In Hogwarts Legacy
After some fruitless browsing, the idea I had to fix this worked out for me. If you have this bug happen to you, go see Gladwin Moon during the night instead of the day.
He will be standing where he was when you first tried to do the quest, at the puzzle door at the entrance of the Grand Staircase from the Great Hall. Remember, however, neither quick travel with Floo powder nor time skip will be available (the “Wait” option doesn’t even appear on the map, and pressing its button won’t do anything). So, you’ve gotta walk there, and then wait until the day passes.
Talk to the caretaker once the option comes up, don’t tempt the devil, and finish the quest in one sitting (you’re done for good after finding the two Demiguises of the Faculty tower and returning to Gladwin Moon). And save after it.
What’s Going On Here?
Don’t stress out over getting caught or getting a game over during the quest. Restarting from the last checkpoint is safe.
What seems to be happening there is that Hogwarts Legacy incorrectly identifies the game state after leaving the quest. I’m not sure of the exact explanation, and that one will surely be uncovered later by more competent people, but it’s likely got to be with the quest forwarding you into the night and abandoning it resetting you back into the day.
Whichever the actual reasoning is, the outcome is that the game seems to identify that it’s currently night in terms of events that can happen while it’s visually showing daytime. As such, waiting for the in-game equivalent of 12 hours puts the visuals to night, but the actual available events to daytime state, allowing you to talk to Mr. Moon and to actually start his quest.
Note: Reloading the game, exiting the game, and going to a different area (including Hogsmeade or the Room of Requirement) are all options that will not fix the issue. One idea that wasn’t attempted (among the ones that work for other softlocks in Hogwarts Legacy) is exiting the game > loading a different save file / creating a new game > loading the main save file again.
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Precautions to Take to Avoid this and Other Quest Bugs In Hogwarts Legacy
The Gladwin Moon quest bug isn’t an isolated case in Hogwarts Legacy. Reports of people getting locked out of quests or of other sorts of completion are many. This is also not the first Hogwarts Legacy bug we have covered on FPSChampion, but rather than looking for fixes, what’s best is to avoid running into the bugs in the first place.We’ve also, unfortunately, had to cover how to fix the Trials of Merlin quest bug in Hogwarts Legacy as well.
And for that, until a patch comes in, there are some habits to take since it seems to be one single major issue similarly affecting dozens of areas of Hogwarts Legacy.
Save regularly, possibly before every quest. Use two save slots alternatively (save 1 on slot 1, save 2 on slot 2, save 3 on slot 1, save 4 on slot 2, and so on) – you might save over a bug and lock yourself into it, but you’ll probably notice it before the next save, and that’ll still leave a slot to load back in without issues.
Don’t reload to reset a choice, don’t abandon quests. Clearly, reloading does not reset everything properly. Some flags that you’ve triggered since your last save don’t get reset alongside a reload, while events that accompany these triggers do get reset.
That’s how you end up being unable to progress a quest, or winding up with unique gear or a broomstick upgrade that’s definitely inaccessible. Because if you acquired it then reloaded, then the game properly removed it from your inventory, but also considers that you’ve still done the steps to acquire it.
This is particularly relevant for the next Gladwin Moon quest, The Man Behind The Moons, immediately following The Caretaker’s Lunar Lament. For this quest, the caretaker asks the player to find more Demiguise moons, and will reward this with the stronger version of Alohom*ora enabling opening doors and chests with locks of level 2 and 3.
Players commonly get locked out of completing that quest by retrieving a Demiguise moon, doing something, and then reloading their game without saving. The previously acquired moon is no longer usable, but it also can’t be harvested again.
These are no miraculous solutions, and they’re bland and result from common sense. But that’s the best there is until a patch comes in.
Reflexes To Have With Bugs In Hogwarts Legacy
If you run into another bug on your playthrough, the best that you can do (besides looking it up) is to try methods that have worked for other bugs on Hogwarts Legacy.
Here’s a short list of options to try in these cases:
- Obviously, restarting the game.
- Saving over a different save file, then reloading.
- Loading a different save file, then going back to the main one.
- Abandoning the quest, doing another quest, retrying the first one.
- Waiting out one day cycle.
These should be your best shots when blindly looking for a workaround with a bug in Hogwarts Legacy!
Wrapping Up The Gladwin Moon Bugfix Guide for Hogwarts Legacy
We hope that this guide on how to get past the Gladwin Moon quest bug in Hogwarts Legacy was useful for you. Or, well, frankly, we hope you stumbled upon this article without having encountered the bug because that thing is a hassle.
If you’ve found different ways to get yourself out of technical problems in your own playthrough, share them in the comments below! Fellow Hogwarts Legacy players like yourself will be eternally thankful!
