Tips in Brewing Potion Pottermore

Now that I have completed the Pottermore book one, I decided to brew potions for additional house points. I have—in all difficulty—brewed 5 potions. I’m still having problems with the Forgetfulness Potion. I don’t know why but the system kept on saying that I did something wrong—like allegedly putting the lavender in the wrong mortar when THERE IS ONLY ONE MORTAR there! GRRRRR! Anyway, I’ve learned my lesson and the frustration that comes with brewing potion is natural. What I will be posting here are some tips that you will hopefully find helpful as you brew your own potions. It's a bit wordy but I'd say it's comprehensive. Hope you'll stick around. Here it goes…

1. Take time to read the ingredients before doing anything else. As it appears first, it’s better if you write it down somewhere so you don’t have to open your potions book again and again. It saves time that way. And, add the ingredients a bit fast and with accuracy. Your potion will be spoiled if you take too long especially when you have already put an ingredient into your cauldron. ALWAYS follow the instructions. Follow each step one at a time.

*Update: I just learned that you can do two instructions at a time as long as the system crashes out that certain instruction in your potion book. For example: Third instruction would be, "Gently heat for 20 seconds." What I did was to wait for that 20 seconds to elapse before moving on to the next instruction. Then I learned that it was TOTALLY unnecessary since I can pretty much move on to the next instruction AS LONG as they crashes out that "Gently heat for 20 seconds" instruction. Which means, you can heat your potion then crush stuffs into the mortar and then put the crushed mixture to the cauldron and so on and so forth.

how to brew herbicide pottermore
 correct way of brewing potion pottermore

2. When dragging your ingredient towards the mortar or cauldron, make sure you hold it tight. Once your ingredient splashes on your cauldron instead of into your mortar, the whole process is screwed so you need to start again.
 how to brew the sleeping draught potion pottermore

• Make sure where the ingredient is supposed to be put.
   how to brew the cure for boils potion pottermore
• Drag dry ingredients way above the cauldron so you don’t risk dropping it on your cauldron.
   how to brew the wideye or awakening potion
• In terms of putting liquids on your cauldron, make sure you hold the stopper or the lid so that it won’t splash (What I do: when I’ve put the needed number/measure on the cauldron, I throw the bottle away. :P not ideal but it doesn’t really matter since no additional piece of that ingredient will be deducted but smokes will surely appear)

brewing potions in pottermore, how to brew potions pottermore
*Update: Have you experienced having that IRRITATING message saying you have put the wrong amount of ingredient? Well I have and it could happen to you. After brewing lots and lots of potions, I have concluded that this phenomenon happens when you spill your potion ingredient while putting it into the mortar or cauldron. Best thing to do is to make sure that no teensy amount of ingredient is spilled. Example: When you're putting your lavender, make sure to put it close to the mortar. What I usually do is to position it horizontally and let it rest to the mouth of the mortar before letting it go. Or some would say that it's better to position it vertically. Either way, as long as you don't spill any of it, you're on the right track. :)

3. Putting your ingredients and crushing them on the mortar is no biggie. Notice the little number in a circle on the left side of your mortar as it will determine how much you have already put in there. Same goes with your cauldron (number will appear on the right side). Just make sure that you stop crushing when your gauge turns green. You don’t have to worry if it says fine, rough, very fine, etc. since the gauge will be your “lookout” how fine you have crushed the ingredients. Just stay on the green zone and you're safe.
correct way of brewing potions pottermore
4. Now, there are 3 buttons below your cauldron. Yellow one will let you turn on the fire (middle button), red (right button) will make the temperature of the fire go high and the blue (left button) will turn off the fire. If the instruction says “heat on medium temperature for 30 seconds,” all you have to do is click the YELLOW button then press the RED button until your gauge turns green. Make sure to press the yellow button AGAIN to stop the temperature from rising. Once green, a timer will appear to let you know how long have passed by. After 30 seconds, you can now proceed to the next procedure. In some cases, when you click the red button, the fire temperature lowers so you have to KEEP PRESSING the red and yellow button to let it stay in green. But, in other cases, once you press the orange button, the temperature will stop from going down. I have also encountered a glitch in the buttons—when trying to press the yellow button to lower the temperature, it doesn’t work. So what I did was I kept on pressing the blue and yellow button. It’s like turning on and off the fire.

*Update: You can actually click the red button to turn on the heat. My bad :P
how to brew forgetfulness potion pottermore
having trouble with brewing potion pottermore
5. Practice first the Cure for Boils Potion if you want to but it’s not really helpful since the actual brewing of a potion is quite tough. For example, the stirring rod is quite sensitive so take your time in stirring the cauldron and make sure that you stir it well, tracing the brim of the cauldron. A number will also appear to let you know how many times you have stirred your cauldron. Take note, make sure you stir it clockwise or counterclockwise AS DIRECTED and don’t stir it fast because if you did, they will tell you that you have stirred the potion wrong.

6. When waving your wand, make sure that you click your wand just once. If you click your wand more than once, then you run the risk of melting your cauldron and 5 POINTS will be deducted from your house. Just click it and don’t move your mouse when he’s (the wand) doing his own thing. Oh yeah, I had a hard time finding my wand. It’s located at the farthest right of the table. See the little stick there? That’s the one.

7. After completing the first set of instruction and waited for 80 minutes or so (depending what kind of potion you’re brewing), you will need to proceed to the second set of instruction as soon as you have click the “Next” button. Add the remaining ingredients—as directed on the potions book—as quick as you can to avoid spoiling your potion.

 help brewing potion pottermore

Glitches:

I have encountered numerous glitches when I was playing Pottermore and numerous glitches are present in brewing potion. And they are:

1. After completing the first half of the instruction (as there are two), a message will appear saying: Blah blah Potion is now brewing – 68% complete. Check this potion in 95 minutes to see if it has worked. In the meantinme, yadah yadah yadah… then you have this “come back later” button. You would probably click it or you might click the other features in the site. BUT, before you do that, READ THIS WARNING. I have done those thing but what happened was when I came back to check the progress of my potion, IT’S GONE! Like gone gone. So I need to brew the potion again. No ingredients have been deducted (I guess) so it’s ok…NOT. How about the time you spent waiting for that potion to brew? I hate it when that happens so what I do now is I wait and I don’t do anything to that particular tab. You can still play but just to make sure, go open a new tab.


hidden books in pottermore
*Update: Some of the students in my house says that not closing the tab did not work for them. So...I dunno. That trick always works for me. I think it varies considering the maintenance they've been doing lately.

2. I discovered this when I was brewing once. I accidentally added the wrong ingredient to the cauldron. My potion should have been messed up but it didn’t because I have refreshed the page instantly. And no ingredients have been deducted. Happy me! :)

If, by any chance, you just wanted to brew potions to earn a lot of points for your house, you should brew Sleeping Draught as it will give you a big fat 11 POINTS! Also, if you're too afraid of the buttons in the cauldron, brew Herbicide since you don't have to press any buttons at all :D

Antidote to Common Poisons: Counteract poisons
Points: 7 points
*Time to brew: 85 minutes
Key Ingredients: Bezoar (10 galleons each), Mistletoe Berries, Unicorn Horn

Cure for Boils: Cures boils
Points: 3 points;
*Time to brew: 80 minutes
Key Ingredients: Horned Slugs, Porcupine Quills, Snake Fangs

Forgetfulness Potion: Memory loss
Points: 9 points
*Time to brew: 95 minutes
Key Ingredients: Lethe River Water, Mistletoe Berries, Valerian Sprigs

Herbicide: Kills or damages plants
Points: 9 points
*Time to brew: 95 points
Key Ingredients: Flobberworm Mucus, Horklump Juice, Spines of Lionfish

Sleeping Draught: Temporary sleep
Points: 11 points
*Time to Brew: 100 minutes
Key Ingredients: Flobberworm Mucus, Lavender, Valerian Sprigs

Wideye or Awakening Potion: Prevents sleep, revives from drugging and concussion
Points: 9 points
*Time to brew: 95 minutes
Key Ingredients: Dried Billywig Stings, Wolfsbane, Snake Fangs

*After the first set of instruction is completed, you have to wait for a particular time (each potion differs from the other) before you can proceed to the second set of instruction.

And yeah, and as a truly Ravenclaw, I have calculated that the cheapest potion to brew is the Wideye or Awakening Potion because most of it's ingredients are renewable (They regenerate themselves after you ran out of that particular ingredient and thus, you can go back to the chapter and moment where you found it and collect it; you can only collect one ingredient at a time. They will regenerate if and only if, you don't have a say, bezoar, in your list of potion ingredients). And the most expensive would be Sleeping Draught as it's ingredients can only be bought in Diagon Alley. And they don't come cheap too. As I remember, there are 20 Lavender per 1 Galleon - same with Valerian Sprigs.

Before you buy potion ingredients, read my post about regenerating potion ingredients here to save some Galleons.

The following are the links to instructions on different potions so that you can have a headstart on what to expect:

• Antidote to Common Poisons
• Cure for Boils
• Forgetfulness Potion 
• Herbicide Potion
• Sleeping Draught 
• Wideye or Awakening Potion

Some people are still asking these questions: How do I get to the next book? How do I get to chapter two on Pottermore? Why can't I access Chamber of Secrets?

Answer: You cannot. As of the moment, Chamber of Secrets (CoS) is still not available and rumor has it that it will be opened next year or sometime during Christmas (I have read all the entries in the Insider but nothing about CoS being opened during Christmas or anything whatsoever--as of October 4, 2011). I know, I know. It's waaaay too long! But it does make sense actually. JK didn't release the books in a one time deal and the movies weren't either. And besides, if, by any means, they'd release all the chapter in the books all at the same time, people would've been done by it in a matter of days. Let's just wait and see what happens. :)

When will the chamber of secrets be opened?

Still have some questions? Comment here. :) Whatever your house is, I'll be happy to be your friend. My username is FelicisStar3! And if you knew some tips as well, comment up and let's help each other. For the Claws visiting here: Let's win the house cup! And happy brewing! :D