Game Basics

CLIMBING

Lara can climb various ledges, stone platforms and wooden walls througout the game. Most ledges and (wooden) wall planks are marked with faded white paint. This quickly helps the player discriminate climbable objects from other unclimbable platforms.

HIDING/COVER

Lara automatically ducks behind waist-height walls, crates and boxes whenever enemies are nearby. Aiming moves her out of this position automatically, while releasing aim puts her back in a cover position.

MAKESHIFT BOW

The makeshift bow initially only has access to regular arrows. Holding down the right trigger makes Lara put more tension on the bow, resulting in a more powerful shot. Once initiated, you can't postpone such shots indefinitely; Lara will eventually lose control of the bow and her sight starts to wiggle, making distant headshots much harder. Fire the arrow right after the bow has maximum tension for the best result.

Later in the game, Lara gains access to a lighter, allowing her to use fire arrows. This gives the player the ability to also ignite unreachable salvage bags and torches to collect previously skipped salvage or other items.

Rope arrows are another variety Lara gains access to later in the game. This allows the player to pull objects that have rope around them, to destroy (weak) wooden barricades made partially out of rope, and to create rope bridges to cross wide gaps.

Certain (heavy) barricade types include concrete. In order to destroy these, Lara needs the rope ascender in addition to rope arrows; this device is gotten from a boss later in the game.

BASE CAMPS

There are two types of camps in the game, day camps and base camps. Only the latter have the 'Fast Travel' option, allowing travel between any base camps Lara has previously visited in the game. Day camps - like base camps - still allow skills and gear to be upgraded.

SKILLS & SKILL POINTS

There are various skills Lara can choose from after gaining skill points. By acquiring XP (experience points), Lara will invisibly level up and gain skill points whenever a certain XP threshold has been reached. XP is granted after killing animals and enemies or by story progress at key points.

Once you have one or more skill points, you can then spend these at any camp in the game. At the start of the game, the survival skills are more useful than the ones in other categories, although you'll definitely want to invest into combat skills once you're about one third into the game. Skills that enhance Lara's Survival Instincts are especially useful when you're trying to collect every single collectible in the game.

GEAR MODIFICATION

Find enough salvage and Lara can upgrade her four main weapons (and early on her axe as well), making them faster, more accurate and more powerful, or expand their clip capacity or unlock new ammunition types. You'll have to decide for yourself which weapons you prefer to upgrade. The handgun becomes much less useful about two thirds into the game, although its triple burst shot somewhat makes it up for its lack in speed and power.