The Ministry ID is your in-game name. It’s what NPCs in Wizards Unite will call you, but not what shows up for other players or in friend requests.

That’s your Wizards Unite Code Name. This is how other players will know who you are. It displays in friend requests and lets people track your progress by that name. It also appears when you join a challenge at a Fortress, remaining visible for the duration of the challenge. Finally, it’s also what shows up at an Inn if you put a Dark Detector at said Inn to try and attract more Traces.

Naturally, Niantic via the game’s official website is cautioning players to be careful when choosing a Code Name, since you could very well end up meeting the people who see it in the course of playing Wizards Unite.

But how do you change it if you don’t like it? The short answer to that is that you can’t.

Right now, Niantic doesn’t let players change their Code Name after they’ve already picked one. If you’ve ended up entering something that now fills you with regret, unfortunately, the only option is to restart the game from the very beginning.

Code Names are tied to the account you use for the game, and if you sign out of the account, you can’t play the game.

For what it’s worth, you can change your Ministry ID as many times as you want.

We’ve reached out to Niantic, asking whether there are any plans to change this situation and let players change their CNs in the near future, and we’ll update once we hear back.

Meanwhile, if you’re stuck trying to get more Spell Energy and don’t feel like trekking to the nearest AT&T retail location, check out our Harry Potter: Wizards Unite spell energy guide.

Our growing guides hub has even more about the game, including our complete professions guide and how to use greenhouses. We’ve also got the lowdown on the disappointing spectrespecs.