Brewing is the engine that drives Hela: Of Mice and Magic. You play as mice in a world modeled on Northern Sweden, and almost everything you pick up in the forest ends up in a cauldron inside a witch’s cottage. What comes out of that cauldron is either a boost to your own abilities or a physical tool, called a remedy, that changes how you move through the world.
Quick answer: Forage ingredients in the world, carry them back to the witch’s cottage, then work through the numbered steps on the recipe book page at the cauldron to bottle a brew or a remedy.
How brewing works in Hela: Of Mice and Magic
Brewing is not a menu you click through. Each recipe lives on a hand-drawn page in the witch’s recipe book, and the page lists both the ingredients and the physical actions the mice have to perform at the cauldron. You jump on the spoon, work pipes and valves, strike a gong, and lower a plug. The cauldron reacts as you go, glowing green or yellow when a step lands.
Because several of those actions happen in different spots around the brewing station, the process leans on cooperation. Mice operate levers and pedals while the pot is doing its work, and the game supports co-op play, including two-player split-screen.
Finished brews split into two categories. Some improve what your mouse can do. Others get built into remedies, the gadgets you carry back out into the world.
Ingredients you forage for brews
Ingredients are scattered across woodland, meadow, and wetland areas, including mossy boulders, fallen logs, and pond edges. Mushrooms and berries are picked straight off the forest floor. The named ingredients that appear in recipes are:
- Glimmer
- Sticky Bun Mushroom
- Arctic Starflower
- Cloudberry
- Red Cranberry
- Forget-Me-Not
- Resin Bead
- Lasting Token
Glimmer is the bulk ingredient. Recipes such as Active Tonic and Recollector each call for 20 of them, so it is worth collecting more than you think you need before heading home.
Recipes and the steps each one requires
No two pages ask for the same sequence. Some end with a simple collection step, while others add stirring, a gong strike, or a frog statue that vents steam mid-brew.
| Recipe | Listed ingredients | Actions shown |
|---|---|---|
| Flying Soap | Glimmer, Arctic Starflower, Cloudberry, Red Cranberry | Collect |
| Active Tonic | 20 Glimmers, 3 Sticky Bun, 3 Arctic Starflower | Stir, use gong, collect flask (x2) |
| Tonic | Bottle or flask | Lower plug, collect |
| Recollector | 20 Glimmers, 3 Resin Bead, 3 Forget-Me-Not | Stir, use gong, collect flask |
Recipe pages are also grouped into categories in the book, with headings such as Restoratives and numbered sub-steps like “II. Collect” for remedies that need a spray bottle at the end.
Completing a brew at the cauldron
Carrying extra is fine. A completed Recollector page reads 24/20 Glimmer, 4/3 Forget-Me-Not, and 6/3 Resin Bead, so surplus ingredients do not block the brew.
How to confirm a brew is finished
The recipe book is the confirmation. Every step counter on the page flips from 0 to its target as you complete it, so a finished Recollector page reads 1/1 down the whole list, from “Add 20 Glimmers” through to “Collect Flask”. The recipe name at the top is marked as complete, and the mice celebrate in front of the book.
If any counter is still showing 0, that step has not registered yet and the brew is not ready to bottle.
What remedies do once you leave the cottage
Remedies are the payoff for brewing. They are handheld contraptions the mice test indoors before taking them out into the forest and the nearby village. The ones shown in action include:
- A brass horn that blows wind and yellow smoke
- A heart-shaped emitter that fires a cyan energy beam
- A water sprayer and a sprinkler
- A device that projects blue protective bubbles
Those tools clear obstacles, spin laundry lines, launch mice into water, and shatter stone seals. Beams also unlock glowing amber blocks on stone statues, and the bubbles act as platforms for traversal. The same remedies are used to help the world around you, from a friendly rabbit to the humans nearby, including an older man playing the violin outdoors.
Each new remedy widens where you can go, which feeds back into foraging. Explore, gather, brew, then return with a tool that opens an area you could not reach before.
Hela: Of Mice and Magic release date and platforms
The game arrives on December 1, 2026. The Xbox-facing title card lists Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Game Pass, with the game available in Game Pass Ultimate on day one. The wider launch lineup also covers PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2. It carries an ESRB rating of Everyone.
No specific launch time has been confirmed. Until then, the brewing loop is the clearest look yet at how progression is structured, and it is worth noting how much of it is manual work at the pot rather than menu navigation.
