10 Tips for Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Guide

We have brought you a Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide with the best 10 tips. Follow our tips so that you can survive in the game.

There is a lot to explore in the Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s world. In addition to collecting resources, raiding tombs, exploring crypts, and tackling challenges, Lara has side missions to complete. She must also save the world. You are probably familiar with the game’s mechanics if you have played the previous games in the (rebooted) series. Despite this, it isn’t always clear.

As this is one of Lara’s biggest journeys yet, arming yourself with the essential Shadow of the Tomb Raider guide will serve you well. Of course, you may just jump in and start exploring for yourself, but there are some tidbits of knowledge that are useful to know before you get started.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide: Changing the difficulty level

The game’s configurable difficulty levels are one of its most appealing features. Previously, games had a standard difficulty option where you could play the game on casual, regular, hard, or expert. This game allows you to personalize several aspects of the game. It allows you to play to your strengths—whether you want the puzzles, fighting, or exploration to be a bit harder or a little easier.

You may even skip one and still win a trophy for having the other two at a higher difficulty. For example, if you play puzzles and exploration on hard but fight on regular, the game qualifies as being played on hard mode.

You might also like Rise of the Tomb Raider Multiplayer Guide – Easy way to play with friends

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide: Skills

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Image credit: Steam)

There is no requirement for any skill. Consider how you can use your skills to personalize your gameplay. Grab the blue seeker talents if you enjoy collecting and hunting. Concentrate on the red warrior talents if you enjoy shooting and stabbing evil enemies. Consider the green scavenger talents if you enjoy stealth and sneaking. Skills are desirable, but largely needless, additions to one’s quality of life. Buy anything if it appears to be attractive or beneficial.

However, throughout the first few hours of the game, consider purchasing the two talents that improve your swimming. Underwater, the aim is to go faster and hold your breath longer. These two abilities are essentially a technique to alleviate the majority of the tension associated with underwater routines. If you buy them, you won’t have to worry about drowning as much.

They don’t have to be your initial improvements because you won’t be spending much time underwater in the first several hours. But when the time comes to go swimming, you’ll be pleased you have those talents.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide: Hearts are the weak points

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide

Sure, blasting anything in the head would kill it quickly, but larger creatures have genuine cardiac maps. One of your skill tree’s abilities allows you to watch that heart beating, allowing you to hopefully kill your enemy in one amazing shot. Of course, even if you don’t have that benefit yet, it’s worth a shot.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide: Explorer Backpacks

For those acquainted with the series, this may not come as a surprise, but discovering the Explorer Backpack exposes the location of all the GPS survival caches on the map, removing the need to look for them. So don’t waste your time combing the surroundings for tell-tale glints in the light — it’s a total waste of time.

Read Tomb Raider Multiplayer Guide – How to Play with Friends

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide: Side missions

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Guide
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Image credit: Steam)

There’s no need to speed through the major tale. This game is really slightly more open world than its predecessors. Tomb Raider has always featured a slew of side tasks in the shape of challenge tombs and extra missions, but this one has even more, and they’re worth doing to make advancing through the main plot a bit simpler. 

They provide prizes in the form of experience, which you can subsequently use to gain skill points, and they occasionally provide weapons that are not available elsewhere. If you’re stuck in the main quest, consider experimenting with some optional missions to gain some experience.

You can pick up anything

Make a point of gathering up everything you see as you progress through the game. You never know when you’ll need to cure yourself or make some arrows, and the plants you pass by that you may collect are just what you’ll need. You can never have too much of anything, so make sure you’ve collected everything till you can’t. Even if you think you have enough medication or materials to make arrows, you never know when your resources may run out, and there’s no reason not to pick up everything.

Revisit the areas

Certain areas will require a second visit. Certain monoliths can only be translated after completing something further on, and other challenge tombs cannot be entered or completed until certain equipment has been acquired. The game is not only lengthened, but the open-world becomes an even bigger part of it since you are back and forth between levels.

You can quickly select any weapon

quick weapon
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Image credit: Steam)

Any time you press the D-pad, an overlay of all of your weapons will appear (still in real-time). Using the right stick, you can then highlight the one you want. But do you know what’s faster? Tap the corresponding D-pad direction to pull out your desired weapon, if you already know which one you want.

Maps are very useful

Your map will fill in with vital nuggets of information as you explore the world of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Archivist maps and explorer backpacks, for example, will add a slew of markings to your map. The issue is that transitioning from a two-dimensional map to the three-dimensional environment of the game can be difficult. Furthermore, you lack a compass.

Marking your destination on your map is the most helpful thing you can do. When you choose a target, you’ll see a marker on your HUD with a blue beam of light indicating what you’re looking for every time you press R3 (on a console). It isn’t ideal, but it is preferable to aimlessly roaming.

When there is no way, just look up

there are many ways
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Image credit: Steam)

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, navigation is rather simple. Your survival instinct can even emphasize some (but not all) of your jumping, grasping, and swinging possibilities (more on this below). There will still be occasions when you feel as though you have run out of choices.

When you’re feeling down, remember to gaze up. When you’re worrying about your feet, it’s easy to overlook a climbable wall – some of those ledges are just a bit higher than you may imagine. Before getting irritated, take the time to look above. Some ledges blend into the walls, so take a thorough look at your surroundings.

For more Guides, Tips, and Tricks

Check out our Video Games Guide Section for more dedicated guide

Omer Khan
Omer Khan
Omer has a proven track record in the online media industry as a Content Writer. He holds a bachelor's degree in international journalism and mass communication and enjoys sports and video games.

Latest articles

Related articles