Rise of the Tomb Raider walkthrough and guide
Our complete walkthrough for Rise of the Tomb Raider, including Challenge Tomb, side mission, legendary weapon and collectible guides.
Lara Croft's rebooted adventures continue in this sequel to 2013's Tomb Raider. A little older and a little tougher than the shipwrecked archaeology student who appeared in that game, Lara is now a hardened adventurer on a single-minded quest to prove right the outlandish claims made by her father, the disgraced toff Lord Croft. Her quest takes her, via a brief stop in Syria, to the mountains of Siberia on a quest for - you guessed it - a lost city and a powerful, ancient artefact. She and Nathan Drake should compare notes sometime.
As in the last game, Crystal Dynamics has created a mix of straight-ahead action adventure with "RPG-lite" character development, and given it all a strong survivalist motif. The storyline's pretty linear, but it takes you through a few expansive areas that are stuffed with side missions, challenges, and best of all, the optional Challenge Tombs: secret ruins in which you'll need to solve a complex puzzle to unlock a powerful perk for Lara. But first, you'll have to find them.
Whether you're playing on Xbox One, or the later released PS4 and Xbox One versions, read on for our walkthrough of the storyline, and guide to all of Rise of the Tomb Raider's challenge tombs, missions and challenges.
Rise of the Tomb Raider Walkthrough
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Mountain Peak, Syria, The Lost Tomb, The Hidden Oasis
How to rattle through the opening section of the game nice and fast.
Other pages:
Rise of the Tomb Raider - The Prophet's Tomb, Survival Instincts, traps, water puzzles
Our guide to surviving the Prophet's Tomb, and grabbing all the collectible items.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Siberian Wilderness, Glacial Caverns, Skill Points, Grab and Go
How to upgrade your bow and survive the Siberian Wilderness section of the game.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Soviet Installation, zipline, Jacob, Communications Breakdown
Our complete guide to the next section of Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Abandoned Mines, minecart, Coin Cache, smoke-screen, crane
How to survive the Abandoned Mines and use the smoke-screen to your advantage.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Geothermal Valley, fire arrows, Molotov, rescue
Beginning the Geothermal Valley section of the game, and adding fire arrows to your arsenal.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Back to the Forest, grapple axe, patrols, special ops, soldiers
How to complete the Back to the Forest section, and get to grips with the grapple axe.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Flooded Archives, The Cathedral, Ana, rebreather, artefact
How to survive the Flooded Archives and escape in one piece.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - The Gathering, Atlas, shop, Trinity, plough
Completing The Gathering section of the game and tracking down Trinity.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Research Base, ice, audio log, cable car, silo, gunship
Our survival guide to the Research Base section of Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Path of the Deathless, Orrery, codex, Hidden City, SMG
Finishing up the Path of the Deathless section in the penultimate part of our walkthrough.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - The Lost City, trebuchet, Deathless Warriors, helicopter, Konstantin
The concluding part of our guide to Tomb Raider's core storyline.
Other Rise of the Tomb Raider Guides
Optional Challenge Tombs
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Ice Ship, Red Mine, Ancient Cistern, Voice of God
How to solve the Optional Challenge Tombs in Glacial Caverns and Soviet Installation.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - House of the Afflicted, Baths of Kitezh
Our guide to the first two Geothermal Valley Challenge Tombs.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Pit of Judgement, Sacred Waters, Chamber of Exorcism
Guides for the final three Challenge Tombs in the game.
Legendary bow
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Crypts, Grim Whisper, Ancient Quiver, legendary bow
How to track down all the pieces for the Grim Whisper / Ancient Quiver legendary weapon.
Challenges and side missions
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Challenges, side missions
Guides for the bonus Challenges and side missions in each region of the game.
DLC
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Croft Manor: Blood Ties walkthrough and guide
Solve every puzzle and find every collectible in the Blood Ties story expansion.
Start of the Rise of the Tomb Raider Walkthrough
Mountain Peak
This first area is essentially a movement tutorial and introduces the climbing and jumping mechanics, so it's time to don your winter gear and brace yourself for some snowy acrobatics.
Climbing the Mountain
Follow Jonah along the precipice and after a few yards there'll be a small rockslide, A few feet further on a larger rockslide will send you tumbling to your doom and trigger a Quick Time Event [QTE]. Press X to grab the ledge, then follow the on-screen prompts and make your way along the ledge to the right. Climb up the rocks, approach the rough ice, and then use your ice picks to ascend. When you reach the overhang, head to the left, jump across the gap, then jump across to your waiting companion.
Head up the path and go through the cave. Sidle along the narrow ledge, then make a jump across to the climbable ice. When you reach the top, jump up and grab the ledge, then jump right across the small gap, along the ledge, then grab the next bit of ice. As you make your way along it, a large chunk will fall leaving you with a large gap to negotiate. Leap across it and hit X to latch on, triggering another QTE. Hit X to save yourself from plummeting to your doom, then head up and right, and jump up over the gap.
Disaster strikes, but thankfully Jonah manages to keep hold of you. As you dangle from the end of the rope, use LS to swing backwards and forwards to build momentum, then use X to grab the ice when you get close enough. Once you have hold of it, climb up, then run to your right to escape the avalanche.
You're on your own now, and there's no time to hang around - if you stand still for too long, it's game over. Follow the path and jump across to the wooden platform, then down to the next platform. Head towards the plane wreck, taking care to not get pushed off the edge by falling snow. Next, stand on the boulder near the plane's engine and quickly leap across to the bar sticking out of the side of the plane, then out onto the zipline.
After dropping off the zipline you'll slide down a steep slope. Hit X when prompted so as to slow your descent and grab the ledge, then quickly jump to your right and scramble to safety. Run forwards along the collapsing cliff, and when you reach the end, jump off and grab the ice.
Syria
A brief flashback now which serves as an introduction to the puzzle and collectible gameplay, Sun, sand, and brain-teasing await in the catacombs ahead.
The Lost Tomb
After the cutscene you'll find yourself dazed and confused and on a cliff path. Follow it, then climb up and to your right and enter the cave. Once you reach the chamber press RS to activate Survival Instinct and highlight objects of interest. Examine the paintings and the plaque on the wall to level up your Greek skill, then examine the monolith to reveal the location of a Coin Cache on your map. Track it down, then head towards the cracked brick wall and examine it and use your axe to break through.
The Hidden Oasis
Head up the path to your left, jump across the small gap, and climb the brick pillar. Follow the handholds left and upwards, then make your way towards the balance beam to your left. It will start to collapse as you traverse it, so be ready to make a couple of jumps on to solid ground. Jump down and head round the corner, leap across the gap, shimmy to your right, haul yourself up to the temple entrance and head into the darkness.
- The next part of our walkthrough explains how to complete Rise of the Tomb Raider: The Prophet's Tomb.