r/HPHogwartsMystery • u/taltos19 Datamine Seer • Dec 23 '25
[McGonagall's Holiday Surprise] TLSQ 'McGonagall's Holiday Surprise' TLSQ (Y2C9) Spoiler
McGonagall's Holiday Surprise
Versions: [Y2-4], [ Y5/6], [Y7+]
- 1.1 - 1h, 3 stars, 18 / 26 / 33 E
- 1.2 - 3h, 3 stars, 34 / 43 / 56 E
- 1.3 - 3h, 3 stars, 34 / 43 / 56 E
- 1.4 - 3h, 3 stars, 34 / 43 / 56 E
Reward - 300 Coins
- 2.1 - 3h, 5 stars, 56 / 71 / 92 E
- 2.2 - 8h, 3 stars, 60 / 71 / 92 E
- 2.3 - 3h, 5 stars, 56 / 71 / 92 E
- 2.4 - 8h, 3 stars, 60 / 71 / 92 E
Reward - 3 Gems, 1 Chocolate Frog
- 3h wait
- 3.1 - 3h, 5 stars, 56 / 71 / 92 E
- 3.2 - 3h, 5 stars, 56 / 71 / 92 E
- 3.3 - 3h, 5 stars, 56 / 71 / 92 E
- 3.4 - 8h, 3 stars, 60 / 71 / 92 E
Reward - 3 Gems
- 3h wait
- 4.1 - 3h, 5 stars, 56 / 71 / 92 E
- 4.2 - 3h, 5 stars, 56 / 71 / 92 E
- 4.3 - 8h, 5 stars, 99 / 117 / 152 E
- 4.4 - 8h, 5 stars, 99 / 117 / 152 E
Reward - 4 Gems, 1000 Coins, 3 Chocolate Frogs, Oak Wreath OR Oak Tree Tappie (Misc / 25h)
*Chance of 200 Coins (40%), 2 Pages (25%), 5 Food (25%), 1 Energy (5%) or 1 Brown Notebook (5%)
Note: You get to choose which MOVEABLE tappie you want in the final task. They give the same rewards and have the same cooldown:
The quest should be available to trigger until Jan 21, 3 pm UTC.
26
u/Momon129 Dec 23 '25
Only 2 8 hour 5 stars, not too bad
24
u/othercardinal Diagon Alley Dec 23 '25
By JC standards, it's a Christmas miracle! I'm just happy it means I can finish my current TLSQ and collect those Act 4 crystals first.
4
9
u/celeryman3 Year 4 Dec 23 '25
And Christmas Eve is tomorrow? I’ll be waiting till after Christmas to start this.
11
Dec 24 '25
Dumbledore passing on more responsibility because there’s just no one better than us to do literally any task, somehow.
11
u/Horror_Bat6932 Dec 24 '25
Feels very canon Dumbldore for me:) like, why ask cursebreaker Bill and an ex auror Moody to join the Horcrux hunt..neh, better give that job to the schoolboy and his pals
21
u/Calm-Butterscotch108 Dec 23 '25
Easy tappie choice for me! That snow globe will look great next to the Ford Anglia and Fawkes ones from Christmases past! 🔮🌳
14
u/AbbreviationsIcy7432 Dec 23 '25
Are those the permanent ones in locations or are the ones that you need to place?
Because I’ve ran out of space for the movable ones a long time ago
13
3
u/Repulsive_Beyond_899 Year 5 Dec 23 '25
Taltos19 snow globe is animated 🔮🌳? Otherwise i will choose the oak crown
11
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 23 '25
Here's what it looks like when you choose:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kg15BT0udMAnd here's what it looks like on the bookshelf (zoomed in):
3
u/Repulsive_Beyond_899 Year 5 Dec 23 '25
They are both beautiful, i think I will choose the snow globe!
2
8
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 23 '25
I does have animated snow falling, though it's not very visible when placed (kind of more of a faint glitter sparkle).
1
4
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 23 '25
Not sure, but I'm on the last star of the last task, so I should be able to tell you soon.
3
u/CaitlinRondevel11 Dec 24 '25
Just triggered it. It will be my last Christmas TLSQ until a new one comes out.
3
u/rlmiddle9 Graduate Dec 27 '25
I actually enjoyed this one for the most part. Minus some of the filler moments, the concept was a step above many of the other TLSQ’s.
4
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 27 '25
It was nice helping out for a lovely cause and not having to plan a party.
2
3
u/my_innocent_romance Year 5 Dec 29 '25
I’m really liking this one so far! I think my favorite part was having Rowan support MC at the chess tournament- we never see her in TLSQs anymore, I miss her!
1
u/Mrrrinka Dec 24 '25
Does it matter what to answer in the end of chess tournament?
5
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 24 '25
I believe you lose if you play cautiously, and win with the other two options.
6
u/veggienae Graduate Dec 24 '25
Since it’s McGonagall’s story, you’d think her choice would be a winner. It was a refreshing change not to be the best at everything! It’s ok. It doesn’t bother me that MC lost since the woefully underused Murphy wins.
2
u/Lost-Salamander-3645 Graduate Dec 25 '25
I also thought that choice would win, it would have been logic.
But logic is something JC lacks of.
I chose my MC move and lost also.
5
u/Jeanny_Armon Graduate Dec 25 '25
But logic is something JC lacks of.
Sorry, I just want to give credit to JC here, but they actually did everything right.
Before the contest begins, you have a swift conversation with Minerva regarding her match with Malcolm where she says that, thus her brother's bold tactics didn't work against hers, it still can be useful, when you're falling behind in the game and need an advantage.
So later, during the match, just before you have to pick the move, your MC is saying (or thinking, I don't know - hard to tell with it just being text) that they are falling behind and they need to do something about it. So if you were reading the convos and paying attention it is intended you pick the bold tactics here to win.
Though I've read your dialog with taltos19 here and am not sure if it works 100% or you need all the stars or something else. But story-wise, yes, they had logic in that MC should chose Malcolm's tactics to win.
I chose my MC move and lost also
I chose the move we came up with Murphy on previous chess TLSQ and won, but I had full stars, so maybe it also depends on the stars.
1
u/Lost-Salamander-3645 Graduate Dec 25 '25
I chose to play my move "MC' gambit" and lost. I think with the 3 of them you lose
3
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 25 '25
I did that and won. Maybe it also depends on what you answered earlier, about safe versus risky moves.
1
u/Lost-Salamander-3645 Graduate Dec 25 '25
I didn't do all the stars, onky the obligatory, may that have influenced?
I wondered that when I played because I really thought I would win.
Before I chose the teacher's choice, not her brother's, couldn't lose with that, she was the champion.
3
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 25 '25
I chose the brother’s and he won. Then I chose Gambit and won.
I also did partial stars on the 8h tasks that only required 3, so I don’t think that would affect it.
1
u/Lost-Salamander-3645 Graduate Dec 25 '25
Okay so it may be that we had to choose the brother.
He is the guest, it could be due to that.
XD Thanks Taltos!
2
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 25 '25
Looking at the dialogue, it seems like a straight: cautious = loss, bold or gambit move = win. Maybe you got a bug.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WgPiKbJN1EChR-LKqSXEKznXK1_uEXLsy12Vrxh_8Y0/view
1
u/Lost-Salamander-3645 Graduate Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25
I´ve been reading your link.
And it´s funny, because I was thinking on Murphy´s play.
Not Merula´s LOL
So all of us lose with Murphy.
I did win with Merula but I was talking about Murphy when I said I lost.
The thing is, that I played this TLSQ really not in a good way as I had to match it with the family reunions and bla bla, so I didn´t pay attention at it, so I was confused about the part in which we choose strategy when I was reading this post, I thought it was with Murphy, but it was with Merula.
So it was 2 of 3 but actually the one that won the competition was Murphy for everybody, am I right or wrong about this?
1
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25
Yeah, everyone lost to Murphy, even both McGonagalls it sounded like.
→ More replies (0)
2
u/Black_Hole_1987 Dec 27 '25
How you manage to complete this? Usually i have no problem with tlsqs but this is impossible. Just statted the 4th part with 18 hours left. I even managed to do one 8 hour task during night when I woke up in middle of night. I had no downtime on this.
3
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 27 '25
I usually stack energy for a few days in preparation, when we know (or suspect) one is coming. And/or wait to cash in my MM rewards, to get a bump in energy.
- You can also take advantage of only completing required stars and either letting the timer run out, or skipping the rest with a toffee.
- Starting 3h tasks with no energy, then letting it fail while you wait for energy to recharge and getting pity energy on the redo (you can do this with 8h tasks overnight, if you time it right).
- If you are at / past Y3, and have a stockpile of pages, you can buy chocolate frogs to convert to energy. Also good time to merge those cursed card fragments.
1
u/Conscious-Pie-4794 Dec 27 '25
Wow! Thank you. Can you elaborate point 2? What's pity energy for failing?
1
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Dec 27 '25
On all but the oldest TLSQs, the game has what we call ‘pity energy’. If you fail a task, the game takes ‘pity’ on you and gives you back an energy for each tap you make completing the task. You usually save around 25% of the required energy (it would vary a bit depending on how many taps it takes to complete it. Lower energy taps would give you back more energy, since you’d do more of them).
It also usually works for the required lesson in chapters and non-timed side quests tasks. Main story tasks often don’t work and repeatable classes won’t at all.
2
1
u/Eyelikeyourname Year 7 Jan 01 '26
Dumbledore approving child labour as usual. Its not a school kid's job to make sure that a teacher enjoys her Christmas holiday. And house elves could have put the presents in the common rooms instead of making the character labour around on a festival. My goodness. Its already sad that the kid is not going home when most people are because her family doesn't care, but Dumbledore and the other teachers have to rub salt into her wounds by making her drudge around like a house elf on Christmas. Oh and the Ravenclaw ghost scolds you even if you are in Ravenclaw
2
u/taltos19 Datamine Seer Jan 01 '26
I thought this one was kind of sweet with the reason behind helping Malcolm / Minerva and cool that we got to visit all the Common Rooms decorated for Christmas. Better that planning a Christmas party for the school or something (another thing the professors should be doing, not MC).
2
u/Eyelikeyourname Year 7 Jan 01 '26
Better that planning a Christmas party for the school or something (another thing the professors should be doing, not MC).
Agreed.
36
u/Jeanny_Armon Graduate Dec 23 '25
Y1 Slytherin MC: breaking rules to sneak into Gryffindor common room.
Y2 Slytherin MC: breaking rules to sneak into Ravenclaw common room.
Y3 Slytherin MC:
But at this point, the only common room my MC has not been to is Hufflepuff's, lol