Shadow of the Tomb Raider Beginner's Guide | Gameplay Tips & Tricks

Here’s a beginner’s guide on some gameplay tips and tricks in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Game Guide by TauxicPandA on Dec 16, 2025

You begin Shadow Of The Tomb Raider with more control over how the game responds to you than earlier entries. Combat, puzzles, and exploration are tied together through systems that reward planning and repetition.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Beginner's, Guide, Gameplay Tips & Tricks

Difficulty Adjustment

You can customize difficulty across combat, puzzles, and exploration instead of selecting a single preset. This allows you to increase or reduce challenge in specific areas while keeping others unchanged.

You can make the fights easier while keeping the puzzles and exploration hard. You can still keep the achievements even if you lower the difficulty. This method lets you focus on the areas you like while still tracking your progress.

Side Missions

You are not required to move through the main story without stopping. Shadow of the Tomb Raider includes side missions, challenge tombs, and optional tasks spread across its regions.

In some cases, finishing these awards will give you experience points, skill points, and weapons that you can't get on the main road. If you're having trouble with the main story, you can go back to the optional material to build up your skills and resources.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Beginner's, Guide, Gameplay Tips & Tricks

Choosing Skills

Skills unlock through skill points earned from experience. These skills are divided into categories, and none are required to complete the game.

You should select skills based on what you struggle with rather than trying to balance all categories. There is a description of each skill in the skill tree. This lets you plan out which purchases you will make before you spend your points.

Collect Resources

You should collect all the plants and other items you can find while you are exploring. Resources are used to heal and to make bullets; later in the game, they are used more frequently. Even if you have all the items you need, resources can run out quickly during long parts. There is no penalty for skipping things, but collecting them limits your choices in the future.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Beginner's, Guide, Gameplay Tips & Tricks

Using Merchants

Merchants play a larger role in this entry. You can purchase weapons, upgrades, and increased ammunition capacity from them. Each time you encounter a merchant, you should check their inventory so you know what is available later.

Some items can only be obtained through merchants, and increased carry capacity allows you to hold more arrows and ammunition in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Combat Efficiency

When you're fighting, you need to know where your enemy is and how they're moving. Moving quickly can trigger alarms and make more people your enemy.

Before you go on, you should take cover and kill your enemies. Combat flow includes rolling away and moving to a new spot. Attacking without cover or a clear target leads to mistakes. As a result, timing and space are more important than speed.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Beginner's, Guide, Gameplay Tips & Tricks

Navigation Tricks

If you reach a point where progress seems blocked, you should look upward. Many paths require climbing, and ledges are not always visible at first glance in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Inspecting nearby walls often reveals a way to climb. Lara can go places that aren't on the map because she can move and climb. Survival Instinct makes the surrounding terrain and roads stand out. When it's on, it uses colors to indicate progress.

This tool helps you find materials for crafting, puzzle pieces, and ways to get around. When you use it often, you miss fewer resources and find more ways that you didn't see before when you get stuck.

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