Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Tips & Tricks for Beginners

Tips & Tricks for Beginners of Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Complete Side Missions As You Go

The main attraction in Shadow of the Tomb Raider is, of course, the main story and the missions you’ll take on to see Lara (hopefully) save the world. You’ll be heading through creepy, dangerous tombs, taking out Trinity soldiers, and plenty more.

However, not everything you do in Shadow of the Tomb Raider has to be related to the impending doom of the entire Earth. Sometimes, Lara can just go and help NPCs with random tasks, that when you think about it in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t really seem like what Lara should be spending her time doing.

Regardless, these side missions are absolutely worth you completing as you go. If you make a beeline for the end of the main story and ignore a lot of the side content in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, you’ll definitely miss out on vital pieces of equipment to help you unlock previously inaccessible areas in the game world. That lockpick to open those chests? Side mission. Rope ascender? Side mission. You get the idea.

If you want to get the most out of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, don’t simply rush through the main story. Spend time helping out NPCs, completing little bits and pieces as you’re exploring a new environment. You’ll get all of the equipment you completionists out there need to get the all-important platinum trophy or 1000 Gamerscore.

Tips & Tricks for Beginners of Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Loot the Dead

This is a bit of an obvious one, but it’s something we wanted to just remind you of, particularly for when you reach the latter stages of Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s main storyline. There are plenty of consumable resources and materials you gather as you explore the different environments in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and of course, Lara needs to keep her munitions supplies up just in case a group of Trinity soldiers is lurking around the next corner. Therefore, it’s best to kind of just get into the habit of looting every enemy you take down as you go.

Not only will you tend to keep your ammo count high, but you’ll often have the resources you need for anything you need to craft along the way without having to go out of your way.

Sure, there are ammo boxes littered around Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s world, but these become more and more scarce the further you progress through the game.

Additionally, be sure to purchase the Viper’s Nest and Hoatzin’s Hunger skills as soon as you can. The former increases the amount of man-made crafting resources you’ll get from each source, while the latter does the same but for natural crafting resources. Combine the two together and you’ll always be well-stocked for anything you need to craft, or just sell for a bit of extra cash.

Oh, and one final thing, whenever you can, improve Lara’s ability to read Monoliths by reading points of interest. If you read enough of them and decipher Monoliths, they’ll lead you to Monolith Riches, which are resources that can be used or sold for a hefty sum.

Tips & Tricks for Beginners of Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Always Start Stealthy

Lara can certainly hold her own in combat, but going in all-guns-blazing and announcing your presence to a horde of six Trinity soldiers is unlikely to make things a walk in the park. She’s only a one-person-army after all, so it’s best that you stick to the shadows where you can, stay stealthy, and thin out the enemy forces a little bit before you go running out into the open.

Fortunately, Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes it pretty easy to take the stealthy route. Lara’s bow is a silent one-shot-killer if you nail a headshot, and her ability to use Survival Instincts to determine if an enemy is in the sight of another means you can figure out which enemies to take out first so you can remain undetected.

Sure, chances are you’re not going to complete every combat scenario in the game without going undetected, but at least if you’ve stealthily taken down two or three enemies out of a group of eight, that’s a little less to have to worry about when bullets start flying.

Tips & Tricks for Beginners of Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Getting the Balance of Immersion and Helpful Tips Just Right

With the rapid advancement of technology, video games are becoming more and more immersive with every year that passes. Rise of the Tomb Raider already looked stunning when it initially released on the Xbox One back in 2015, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider just ups the ante and then some, especially on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.

Developers Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics have even poured a ton of different settings for you to tweak and adjust to get the feel and challenge of Shadow of the Tomb Raider just right for you.

Don’t want Lara to hint at the solution to every puzzle she comes across? Bump up the Puzzle Difficulty option in settings. Want to make the combat a little easier while keeping everything else the same? Shift Combat Difficulty down to easy. You get the idea.

There are even options to toggle on and off the Survival Instinct beacons that appear when you press R3, should you want to have a more immersive experience.

And that’s the important thing here. While you can head into Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s settings and tweak to your heart’s content, doing so might make certain elements more difficult in favor of making for a more immersive experience. Take some time just going through the different options and settings during your opening moments with Shadow of the Tomb Raider until the balance between handy tips and convenient settings and an immersive, cinematic experience are just right for you. It’ll be worth it in the long-run.

Looking for some more help in Shadow of the Tomb Raider? Be sure to check out our comprehensive wiki filled with tips, tricks, guides, and general information on the game.