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Tomb Raider Reloaded Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Defeat Mighty Bosses

Treasure.

No sane man or woman would pass up the thought of gaining more wealth than they ever had. Combine it with the promise of thrilling adventure, and you have a premise as old as time itself. Adventurers and explorers alike seek this experience for their own and for their own vain glory.

But only a few would continue after encountering such perilous journeys. Trekking mountainous caverns are as pulse-pounding as a should-be-extinct Tyrannosaurus Rex out for your blood. Only the brave and the foolhardy would dare trek sacred lands once they have smelled the scent of gold.

If you are one such thrill seeker, then you are in for a treat.

tomb raider reloaded creative intro
Now how did we get here?

Tomb Raider Reloaded is a top-down, action-adventure shooter with rogue-lite elements. You, the player, control Lara Croft, sent on an expedition to find a hidden artifact. With her, you venture through deadly monsters and dangerous traps. In her eyes, you venture through exotic and mysterious places, solve puzzles, and maybe gain a little wealth along the way.

If you are familiar with games such as Vampire Survivors or Soul Knight, then this game is just for you. This game rewards mechanical skill despite favoring leveling up or power-ups for progression. Both suggested games barrage you with enemies and projectiles from all sides. Tomb Raider Reloaded is no different from them.

tomb raider reloaded extra
Fireworks!

You will be surprised by the sudden depth and difficulty this game has to offer. It will not hesitate to spike up the difficulty with fiercer enemies and bosses. Fear not! With this beginner’s guide for Tomb Raider Reloaded, you’ll be firing back against these vicious monsters in no time!

Set up your hiking gear, wear your favorite teal shirt, and dual-wield those pistols. Join Lara Croft in this exciting adventure around the world!

It’s time to go treasure hunting. So stay with us and read on, as we have come up with a bunch of tips, tricks and strategies for Tomb Raider Reloaded to help you during your journey!

An Overview of Tomb Raider Reloaded

tomb raider reloaded intro
Lara’s journey is as needed as it is dangerous.

Tomb Raider Reloaded is a rogue-lite. Each run in any chapter of the game means a fresh start. You are given a chance to use boons at the beginning of each run. Items that are dropped will be saved. Do not fret whenever you lose—you get back up, and you get stronger.

tomb raider reloaded extra 2
Too much trauma in one image.

The game has only one control feature—a virtual joystick. There’s also double tapping for your ultimate, introduced at the later parts of the game. There are no more control options aside from it. Because of it, Tomb Raider Reloaded is one of those games where it’s easy to learn but hard to master.

Now that we’ve covered that, let’s go over a few basics.

Levels

tomb raider reloaded level up
Uh… which one is the best again?

Clearing stages in each chapter run gives you experience, which allows you to level up. Should you get the required experience, you are given a selection of skills.

Skills

tomb raider reloaded ability pick 1
This game is blessing me too much.

This game offers a selection similar to that of Vampire Survivors, in which leveling up gives you multiple options. Skills complement your currently equipped weapon, making them powerful or giving you a new side arsenal to your gear.

tomb raider reloaded ability pick 2
A bit too much, in fact.

Tomb Raider Reloaded gives you three options to choose from when leveling up. The skill that you will pick up will stay with you up until the end of the run. Aside from leveling up, there are also two other ways to obtain skills—which will be discussed later.

Gear

tomb raider reloaded gear
Lara posing for the camera.

An explorer sans archeologist cannot go on a journey under-prepared. They will be packed to the brim with the equipment necessary to survive under harsh and damp conditions. Tomb Raider Reloaded packs you up with gears to ensure maximum survival. They range from weapons to ammo to ancient relics. They are obtained after each successful (or not) run.

Furthermore, they are also divided into five rarities: common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. Each rarity gives higher values of HP and Damage, allowing you to survive more dangerous encounters in the long run.

tomb raider reloaded manuals
Too many things for so little time.

However, each gear can be upgraded with manuals, which can be obtained via the in-game menu or with each chapter run. Every successive upgrade either adds HP or Damage and a new, increasing cost. Each gear has different manual types for upgrades.

tomb raider reloaded gear crafting
Three horses for a kingdom?

Should the game fill your inventory to the brim, Tomb Raider Reloaded gives you the option to combine three same items of the same rarity into one item with a higher rarity via crafting. This is to ensure that every run in the game still has its own progression, even by the tiniest bit.

A fair note for crafting is that you can use blueprints of the same rarity if you do not have similar gear, but you cannot use purely blueprints to make new gear. You have to have a copy to create a better item.

The next subsections detail the following:

Weapon

tomb raider reloaded clear screen
The easiest game of my life.

Unlike depictions in media, archeologists don’t have guns with them all the time. Tomb Raider Reloaded’s world contains crypts that just so happen to contain monsters that need to die. An equation that stands with the test of time.

Weapons are your primary way of killing opponents in a run. They come in 7 items: pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, submachine gun, staff, chakram, and spear. They have their own unique attributes, as well as different play styles to offer. We’ll go through each one quickly.

Handgun

tomb raider reloaded weapon pistol
Nothing beats 9 mm.

No fan of Lara Croft would not forget her iconic twin pistols that serve her explorations. Through thick and thin, Heckler & Koch never disappoints with their creations, nor do their creations to her.

tomb raider reloaded level pistol
And they still hit hard.

The dual-wielded handgun serves as your first weapon and primary, with average damage and an excellent accurate range (for a pistol). They fire a singular, bulbous shot with a medium fire rate. They are good as starting weapons and are for those needing a quick sleight of hand against any encounters.

Shotgun

tomb raider reloaded weapon shotgun
More bullet per bullet.

What’s better than one bullet per shot? Two more.

tomb raider reloaded level shotgun
Even monsters would like to call 911.

The pump-action shotgun is a formidable close-range weapon. It serves as a reminder for anyone to ‘keep’ away from its distance, monster or not. Compared to other weapons, The shotgun is one of the few weapons to have multiple projectiles at the start of its run, with two more than one.

Submachine Gun

tomb raider reloaded weapon uzi
If 9 mm per minute isn’t enough, then per second does.

The dual-wielded submachine functions similarly to the handgun, but it fires more rounds per second. It has enough stopping power for single targets but falls off in terms of accuracy.

tomb raider reloaded level uzi
Don’t try this at the field, though.

The difference between it and the handgun is how it is wielded; the submachine gun allows Lara to fire off at opposing sides.

Assault Rifle

tomb raider reloaded weapon assault rifle
In the end, even Kalashnikov’s design prevails.

The Kalashnikov assault rifle is sturdy, reliable, and deadly in its construction. With a steady rate of fire alongside high amounts of damage, the assault rifle allows sustainable fighting from a distance.

tomb raider reloaded level assault rifle
Sustained fire is just broken against poor melee monsters.

However, anything beyond the screen will be a noticeably inaccurate shot. Beyond that, it is a classic tool of long-range destruction.

Staff

tomb raider reloaded weapon staff
Ooh, shiny!

It’s not a surprise to see a few weapons from the past wielded, but not in the same way as this weapon. If we use bullets, then our ancestors from way past used mystical craft—magic.

tomb raider reloaded level staff
What did that rat do to deserve such a fate?

The staff allows Lara to throw off two magic projectiles that home in at a monster. It is purely accurate compared to all weapons but fires slowly. The trade-off between fire rate is compensated, considering you will hit your target no matter what, unless they try to jump away like frogs.

Chakram

tomb raider reloaded weapon chakram
A weapon fit for a princess.

Hailing from the Indian subcontinent, the chakram is a circular metal-throwing weapon. Those who have seen Xena: Warrior Princess or any modern shows will acquaint with the weapon easily.

tomb raider reloaded level chakram
Frisbee on the battlefield is as ridiculous as it gets.

Once the weapon is thrown, it will bounce back to Lara, allowing multiple shots against an opponent. It has piercing and wall-bounce to it, allowing variety for an unwieldy weapon.

Spear

tomb raider reloaded weapon spear
Man’s first weapon.

From bullets to mystical arts, there is a lot in Lara’s arsenal that allows her to complete the job. But what if the approach is more practical, refined, and brutal?

tomb raider reloaded level spear
Now, I am the hunter.

The spear is the slowest-firing object in the game. It is also the slowest projectile. But everything about its speed is offset by its ludicrous damage toward a target. If you have 1000 damage, expect the spear to deal 2400 damage—2.4 times the usual. It has no default skills, but anything that can allow you to kill faster is good enough.

Ammo

tomb raider reloaded ammo
A gun nut will have more fun with these bad boys.

For every gun, there needs to be ammo. After all, you cannot shoot things without the very projectiles needed to blast through skulls.

Ammo in Tomb Raider Reloaded is a bonus damage ‘mechanic.’ You can equip only two ammo at once. The various bonuses Ammo gives depend on the ones that you have equipped.

They are the only gear in the game that does not give any stat bonuses to Attack or HP.

Bracelet

tomb raider reloaded bracelets
Friendship bands that hurt.

Newton’s Third Law states that for every action in nature, there is an equivalent reaction. What if we do that whenever the player gets hit by a monster?

The bracelet is the gear that retaliates whenever Lara Croft is hit by a monster. The bracelet will either stun, burn, freeze, or poison anything near the player as long as the equipped item allows it to happen.

Bracelets contribute to your overall attack.

Ultimate

tomb raider reloaded ultimates
Actually not a cursed item.

No adventurer would be without her coup de grâce, and Lara Croft is no exception.

The masks you obtain in Chapters are your ultimates, allowing you access to powerful attacks that can only be obtained via a ‘meter.’ This meter is refilled whenever you defeat a monster. Activating an Ultimate requires two taps anywhere on the screen.

tomb raider reloaded ultimate
She’s backflipping and getting a shield!

Ultimates contribute to your overall attack.

Supply

tomb raider reloaded backpacks
Heard your grandparents used these back in the day.

Going on expeditions requires provisions and tools. Harsh environments require days, if not weeks, of travel in order to arrive at the destination. And that’s not to say the countless medicines and tools needed to survive.

Going by that logic, the supply gear is your go-to when it comes to survival. They give you defensive bonuses that provide you with armor (that comes back when reviving) and reduced damage against specific types.

Supply contributes to your overall HP.

Amulet

tomb raider reloaded amulets
They’re not in the fashion catalog.

The amulet gives you passive bonuses at the start of each stage, given a chance to allow the player to obtain them. They range from giving you X% of your max HP back to 100% critical hits for a limited duration.

Amulets contribute to your overall HP.

Relics

tomb raider reloaded relic 2
Where’d the rest go?

After trudging through the old crypts and finding buried treasure, it’s no surprise to see yourself getting your spoils. What you may not know is that these spoils, like the magical weapons you have wielded, will also help you in the long run.

tomb raider reloaded relic 3

Relics are acquired by completing puzzle stages (more on that later), each divided into pieces that are randomly separated. Obtaining them gives the player a massive boost to a specified attribute the relic piece provides. Completing a relic gives an enormous increase in stats, as well as additional gems.

tomb raider reloaded relic
Puzzle stages in chapters rarely have Relic pieces to collect.

Peru relics are stuck only on Peru Chapters. The same logic applies to Greece relics. If you do not get a relic, the game will not spawn another one until you get lucky again. Try your best to get one when a relic pops up.

Outfits

tomb raider reloaded outfit
Fun fact: Whatever Lara wears is exactly not the kind you’ll be wearing on expeditions.

Adventurers wear their best clothes for the occasion, and Lara Croft is no exception. Wearing her signature teal sleeveless undershirt, short shorts, and a sturdy leather backpack, she dives into the tombs, raiding its contents.

tomb raider reloaded outfit 1
Well, a woman has to have more than just one outfit.

Outfits are not just decorative costumes for Lara Croft. They provide big stat bonuses and additional passive abilities. She has three outfits to choose from, and these outfits have their own unique boosts.

You can level up a specific outfit, as well as ranking them up. Leveling up requires runes that can be collected from chapter runs, whereas ranking up one requires that outfit’s pieces.

Chapters

tomb raider reloaded chapter select
So many tombs, so little time.

Chapters are the ‘stages’ that you select before doing a run. Each chapter becomes increasingly difficult, adding new enemies and increasing their stats. However, the upside of the difficulty is that relic pieces become more common in later chapters, allowing the player to obtain them easily through each run.

To enter a chapter, the player must have five tickets ready (out of the 20 that the player can hold).

tomb raider reloaded starting perks
Revival seems a bit tempting…

After selecting their desired chapter, the player can choose what ancient scrolls to activate for this particular run. The game then starts as soon as the player presses Play.

tomb raider reloaded chapter 1
Frogs and spiders. Odd.

Chapters also have their own length of stages.

tomb raider reloaded chapter waves
Who’s teleporting them?!

And going down further, each stage has its own waves depending on if the chapter has it.

tomb raider reloaded door stuck
Kind of stupid to add a lock that doesn’t fight back.

Every stage before the 10th (depending on the dividend of the stage) has an enemy in the shape of a lock, which you have to destroy in order to continue. It also serves as a warning to the player.

tomb raider reloaded boss
Never mind.

And should you push through a stage with a locked enemy, you will then be greeted by a boss battle. If the stage isn’t the final stage, you will only be fighting a sub-boss of the chapter.

tomb raider reloaded new chapter
And a new adventure begins.

Completing a chapter awards you new Skills to the random pool that you obtain every level up, as well as a new chapter to go through.

Now that we’ve talked about the chapters, let’s go to the chapter’s specifics.

Tombs

tomb raider reloaded tomb
More?!

Completing a chapter also unlocks its tomb section. Doing a complete run of a tomb gives you tomb keys, allowing you to gain more rewards specified by the progress bar on the chapter’s tomb selection screen.

tomb raider reloaded tomb elite
The icicles don’t hit Lara at all.

Tombs are more challenging compared to their respective chapters as there are only a few stages to it (thus lower levels meaning fewer skills). They also introduce elite variants of monsters, each with their own randomized set of abilities the game bestows on them.

In a way, tombs act more as a challenge section for a completed Chapter. The bright side of it, however, is that it only requires 3 tickets in order to do a tomb run.

Lucky Wheel

tomb raider reloaded lucky wheel start
It wouldn’t be a rogue-lite without a twist of fate and randomness.

The Lucky Wheel can be found at the start of the game and at the end of each boss battle. The starting Lucky Wheel at the beginning of each run only contains gold coin prizes.

tomb raider reloaded lucky wheel
Mines and damage.

Those that are found at the end of each boss battle have abilities added diagonally to the wheel. This wheel is one of the two instances where the Heal skill can be found.

Anaya Imanu and Winston

tomb raider reloaded anaya
Who can say no to friends who can give you faster Attack speed?

In a cold, harsh tomb, a good friend can mean the difference between life and death. Those who help you along the way can give you the edge to fight against the tides of survival crashing in your face.

tomb raider reloaded anaya 2
Yeah, you met her at college.

Anaya Imanu is one such friend. Found at every 5th stage of a chapter, Lara’s old colleague gives you a choice between two stat boosts. Her first choice is always static, giving you a 40% heal based on your total HP. The second one alternates between increasing your full HP, your damage, or your critical hit damage.

tomb raider reloaded winston
How’d your old butler get here?

But Anaya is not always alone. Lara Croft’s faithful butler Winston will also give you either a minor damage boost or a minor HP boost. Unlike Anaya, he can be skipped entirely as he plays an ad in order to obtain the boost.

Werner Von Croy

tomb raider reloaded von croy
Being possessed by an Egyptian god has its perks…

Boss battles can be done with no damage, giving you satisfaction for a clean kill. But these victories come at a cost. They serve as a warning for the player should they try hard enough, catching the eye of a monster who needs sacrifices.

Werner Von Croy is Lara’s former one-time mentor turned rival and then possessed by set. He appears only when a player comes out of a boss battle unscathed. He can be completely skipped, unlike Anaya.

tomb raider reloaded von croy 2
Heh, smug.

He can give valuable skills in exchange for 20% of the player’s total HP. It’s hard not to pass up such an offer when you are dead set on finishing a run flawlessly.

Utilize These Strategies

tomb raider reloaded intro 3
Huh, oddly familiar reasoning…

Now that we’ve glossed over a few things, adventurer, now we settle on the finer things in life. How can we win in this game?

Despite its genre, Tomb Raider Reloaded ultimately boils down to a familiar concept: a numbers game. The player can finish a chapter with enough mechanical skill (which will be discussed later), but doing so is complicated and requires precise input. That is not to mention how hard-hitting monsters can be in later chapters.

You’re more likely to rely on offense than defense. If there are no monsters to begin with, then you won’t be hit with anything at all.

Now that we’ve completely set the tone, let’s start talking about how we can win in Tomb Raider Reloaded.

Stutter Stepping

tomb raider reloaded stutter step
It’s as heart-pounding as it gets.

Getting hit is not an option in Tomb Raider Reloaded, nor is staying still. As the following chapters give more enemies that deal greater damage, the ability to move and attack becomes paramount to success. As seen in the same image above, this is the tactic that you will employ in your gameplay.

Stutter stepping is a technique where you move Lara in small intervals for her to attack and move at the same time without sacrificing any time when she doesn’t shoot anything. This way, the player can deal damage without staying still for a longer time, allowing one to approach and disengage at a moment’s notice. The GIF example above demonstrates the tactic.

It is easy to do but hard to master. Stutter stepping requires the player to move and stop at the exact moment in order to fire after the cooldown of the weapon. Not only that, you have to react to whatever is around you. Adding these two things makes stutter stepping, at times, a considerable investment.

Additionally, take note that the demonstration above requires precise timing and understanding of the game. The hitboxes in the game are wonky, and you may have to be quick on the fly to adjust to sudden changes in attacks.

Lastly, weapons that fire faster do not benefit from this technique, as moving for a small period of time means wasted opportunities to deal damage. Weapons like the submachine gun are completely unviable for such a tactic despite their ability to fire in two directions.

With all the above, that does not mean that stutter stepping is the only solution. Gameplay like this only arises when the entire stage is flooded with monsters. How exactly do we deal with that?

Attack Priority

tomb raider reloaded extra 3
Now the vines are alive!

Killing all the monsters is good. But the process of doing so is grueling. With the entire screen filled left and right with so many demons and projectiles, it’s hard to understand what’s the next course of action. But you know exactly what to do: deal with the ones that cover your screen with so many of them.

In the earlier stages of the game, before you get the crazy abilities that fill the screen with projectiles, there are a few enemies that you have to deal with.

tomb raider reloaded extra 4
That’s a lot of damage!

Any critter that runs around the area is the least of your worries. The difficulty spikes once the ranged creatures spawn. They have multiple ways to attack a player: a slow-moving projectile, an area-of-effect attack, or both. The more they litter the screen, the more you cannot deal with everything. Deal with them first.

Recapping, we now know how to move and act, as well as what to kill first. The second step is getting the right skills for the job.

Skills to Choose

tomb raider reloaded power ups
A completely broken adventurer named Lara.

Picking the right skills is critical to the success of a run in Tomb Raider Reloaded. Being able to kill something quickly because you can shoot faster is a welcome addition, but is it something you need. What skills are the ones you should entirely choose and avoid?

The following table shows a priority of skills you can take:

PrioritySkill
1Fast Learner, Rapid-Fire, Piercing Shot, Rebound, Trick Shot, Spread Shots
2Mines, Shots, Rings, Damage Boost, Speed Boost, Critical Chance, Detonation
3Critical Damage, Leech, Agility, Smite, Dodge Master
4Grenades, Surge, Invincibility
SpecialFrenzy, Rage

Tier 1 Skills

tomb raider reloaded tier 1 abilities

The skills in Priority 1 are an absolute must. With Fast Learner, you are able to gain higher levels than expected. Getting more levels means more chances to get skills. Rapid-Fire and Spread Shots blanket the screen with Lara’s bullets to the point that you become the bullet hell. As bosses are giants by default, being able to hit two or more rounds is better for damage.

After getting those skills, adding in Sharpshooter will allow you to deal with grouped-up monsters. Adding in Rebound and Trick Shot ensures that bullets will only fade away if they bounce off walls. Getting these skills makes sure that you are now the bullet hell rather than them.

Tier 2 Skills

tomb raider reloaded tier 2 abilities

Next are the Priority 2 skills. These skills, while beneficial, aren’t the best when it comes to previous strategies. They are good picks; otherwise when the ones above do not appear in the choices.

As the game hounds you with multiple enemies coming at you, mines and rings are great countermeasures to fight back anything while stutter-stepping. They allow you more damage against anything near you, as well as giving breathing room if you have picked the lightning or ice variants.

Shots aren’t Priority 1 skills, but they complement skills that are a tier higher than them. Being able to freeze, stun, burn, or poison opponents naturally with your weapon is a better option than adding anything else to your arsenal.

Boosting your damage and attack speed isn’t the best, but they are hardly the worst. A perfect example of why this is the case is because of mental exercise. The maximum the game gives you is around 20% for both boosts. If you have both boosts applied to 1 second, that means you get 40% more damage in that interval. But skills like Rapid-Fire and Spread Shot repeat the same bullets and fire 2 more bullets per upgrade, respectively. That is more output than a measly 20%. And that is already without any skills like Trick Shot or Rebound.

Critical Chance and Detonation are special mentions than they are priorities. The former allows you a 25% (or 12.5% if it’s a minor type) chance to hit critical shots, and the latter turns dead enemies into a spread-shotting projectile. One is entirely useful when you are decked out with skills; the other requires enemies to be clumped up to be entirely effective.

Tier 3 Skills

tomb raider reloaded tier 3 abilities

Moving on would be the Priority 3 skills. They are still in the middle between the best and the worst, and they are overly reliant on what you have picked so far.

Critical damage requires you to get critical hits, which isn’t exactly a significant percentage to begin with. And you have to waste levels to get the Critical Chance skill just to combine it with the following. The same goes for Smite, which has a meager chance of killing any mook or dealing massive damage to bosses. It’s much faster to kill something that persists more on the screen.

Leech is an entirely different story. While it has the chance to be a higher-priority skill, it acts more as a fallback option whenever you get hit. That doesn’t mean it sucks, as getting 3% of your Max HP back per kill means a lot more than trudging through 5 stages to get through.

Tier 4 Skills

tomb raider reloaded tier 4 abilities

Now, we talk about Priority 4 skills. These are the ones you should avoid and are completely situational. They are not for general use, and they rely on timings. These timings are completely non-existent in this frantic game.

Grenades are the worst sub-equipment Skills you can get. They are slow, have a cooldown, and require constant positioning to get the job done. Mines and Rings do a better job than grenades do, especially at close range.

More so when you encounter Surge skills. Available by finishing Chapter 7, they grant a massive boost in the span of 2 seconds for every 8 seconds. Mind you, you have to wait for 8 seconds after those 2 seconds expire. Overall, every 10 seconds is 2 seconds of burst damage… which is something that you could have from Priority 2 skills.

The same goes for Invincibility, as it has the same activation requirements as the Surge skills.

Special Skills

tomb raider reloaded tier special
Mind you, these skills are no joke. And the only ones out of the tiers to have a caption, no less.

The last ones are the unique picks. These skills are placed down under not because they are bad, but for the reason that they bring a new kind of challenge when playing the game. Another hidden basis not discussed before is beginner-friendly skills. These are not the skills you’d want to pick if you are not familiar with the game.

Rage and Frenzy both give attack speed and damage boosts for every 1% of HP lost. If you are at 1% HP, you get a 99% damage boost and a 39.6 attack speed boost. You hit as hard as they hit you, but a single hit means the game is over. You’d have to be a master at dodging to use these two skills.

Again, I repeat, do not pick these skills if you are entirely unfamiliar with the game. They will take up your choices and will be there until the end of the chapter run. Pick them if you are that confident enough.

Moving on…

If you can’t get any other skill, try to reshuffle your choices. If you just can’t get the skills that you need, simply try to pick the best ones out of the worst. Quitting and restarting a run isn’t exactly an option in Tomb Raider Reloaded, as it will not refund you any of the tickets you use.

Now that we’ve picked our skills, what else do we have to deal with?.

Dealing with Von Croy

tomb raider reloaded von croy 3
Him again?

Defeating a boss without taking any damage gives a massive accomplishment to your skill and your coming as a player. Tomb Raider Reloaded takes it up a notch by implementing Von Croy, whom we have already discussed in the overview.

We know his deal: 20% of your maximum HP for a powerful skill. At higher chapters, you will encounter him 2 to 5 times. If you have 1000 total HP, you’d have about 400 HP remaining after dealing with him 5 times in a row. This is a big undertaking to deal with, but being able to swathe enemies easily is a better option than most.

However, remember that decreasing your total HP doesn’t mean an overflow of your HP—you’ll have less if you’re damaged. If you are capable of reaching Anaya or Winston by the next 5th stage, the damage can be mitigated. Otherwise, take into account how many hits it will take for you to fall down the next time.

tomb raider reloaded extra 5
That’s… that’s just unfair.

Play it smart against Von Croy, and try harder in your runs to get more out of him.

Now that we know how to deal with him, it’s time to pack ourselves with the right equipment.

Which Weapon and Ammo to Choose

tomb raider reloaded equip menu
Where does the ammo go again?

Going into an adventure with faulty equipment is a surefire way to dying to a random boulder thrown at you. Picking the right gear for the right job isn’t.

Tomb Raider Reloaded gives you the luxury of many items to mix and mash for your own convenience. As the game says in its tips, the following will complement how you will play the game. For this guide, however, we will pick the best ones out of the rest.

Narrowing our focus, we’ll deal with the weapons, gear, and ammo of the trade.

Weapon

tomb raider reloaded massacre
Brutal.

There are seven weapons we have to deal with. We discussed their traits, and now we test how good they are complete. We’ll use damage output as the basis, as well as reliability, in general situations. There are weapons that do work best in certain situations, but we’ll be ranking them under a vacuum.

Spear, Shotgun, Staff, and Chakram

tomb raider reloaded best weapons

The triple S of weapons: the spear, the shotgun, the staff, and the chakram. High damage capability, projectile count, piercing, and homing missiles. Clearing rooms full of monsters have never been easier with these four weapons.

The following characteristics are what make these weapons king in the game. The spear deals massive amounts of damage. The chakram pierces and bounces off walls from the get-go. The shotgun blasts anything close range. The staff is its opposite; complete domination at long range with its homing projectiles.

It will require time, however, to build these weapons. Out of the four, the chakram and the staff take a lot of time and effort to succeed, given their low damage output. Of course, given their inherent properties, you can skip a few skills in favor of ones to maximize firepower. You already have the chakram bounce around the area; why have another rebound skill for it?

Assault Rifle and Pistol

tomb raider reloaded mid weapons

Coming at the middle end, these two weapons are the average ones. The rifle’s fire rate and massive damage are outweighed by its shoddy accuracy from longer ranges. The pistols fire two bullets at once with more precision yet suffer from damage. Two weapons with different trade-offs, yet they aren’t exactly the best for the job.

Uzi

tomb raider reloaded weapon uzi

Sadly, the Uzi takes a massive loss in this game. What could be a better version of the pistol becomes a mediocre separate-firing weapon. It looks good on paper against hordes that surround the player from two sides, but the game’s autofire mechanics completely demolish the usefulness of the Uzi.

tomb raider reloaded uzi loser
This is the only use case the Uzi has. Otherwise, it sucks.

The picture above is an excellent example of how an Uzi is utilized. The problem, as stated earlier, is when the player is surrounded. You’ll never see situations like this unless the game forces it. It is made worse when you have to deal with boss fights. Having only one side firing towards the boss means a difficult time for you to take.

So, don’t take too much effort to build on this weapon. In fact, you may scrap the Uzi altogether to get manuals or wait for duplicates to craft it for more manuals.

Now that we have the weapons we wanted, let’s talk about the other gears.

Ammo

tomb raider reloaded equip ammo
Who uses tracer rounds on monsters?

Ammo isn’t exactly a deal sealer when it comes to the larger scale of things. Out of all the gear, they don’t provide any attribute bonuses to both HP and Attack. They are, essentially, only complements to the weapon that you have equipped. Even so, their niche comes from the fact that they deal bonus damage to certain enemies or criteria.

Because chapters tend to be different from to time, interchanging ammo or just picking the ones that have a better rarity is an option. You’ll rarely find ever thinking about ammo to begin with, aside from having to combine them for better ones.

Overall, you can do whatever with your current ammo selection. They don’t give much to the table as much as the following suggestions will.

Bracelets

tomb raider reloaded equip bracelet
Friendship bands for enemies.

For bracelets, they are only active when you get hit. Naturally, your goal is to not get hit. The point of the bracelet is to only add more attack. If you frequently get hit, try taking the ice and lightning bracelets to give a bit of breathing room.

Taking the other bracelets would be pointless as they’ll only deal more damage than stalling for time. Taking into account that monsters will be at full health more than being at half, a damage-dealing bracelet is not a good idea at all. Not even being crowded by monsters would you consider the possibility.

Ultimate

tomb raider reloaded equip ultimate
Ooga booga?

Compared to bracelets and weapons, picking Ultimates is essentially just finding the toppings you like the most. You rarely use ultimates as they require killing enemies, meaning that each run will only amount to ultimates being used about two to three times.

Pick one that suits your play style. Backflipping and shooting opponents or summoning thunder to smite your foes are two different things that two other people will like and dislike. No in-betweens.

Supplies

tomb raider reloaded equip backpack
A bit too heavy now?

Unlike the other two above, there is an absolute must when getting Supplies. Compared to the rest that gives meager dodge and damage reduction bonuses, the Armored Supplies ensure that you have better survivability. You don’t want to get hit, so it’s far unlikely to invest in items that won’t be of use.

Amulets

tomb raider reloaded equip amulet
The name does not lie at all.

Amulets are a different story.

At common rarity, they only give a 10% chance for their abilities to happen—1 out of 10 coin flips. Legendary gives a 50% chance, 5 times more than the common amulets. They are made even sweeter because they will always occur when you start a stage. Picking an amulet to bring with is a must.

And like all picks, we want the one that is best.

The armored and life amulets ensure survivability throughout runs. With these amulets, you’ll never have to worry about Von Croy or any dubious mistakes that you will make in your playthrough. These two are solid picks against anything else.

The rest of the amulets can be ignored.

The precision amulet only gives 100% critical hits for a short amount of time. The agile amulet also works with the same premise—this time for attack speed. There are skills out there that give out more permanent upgrades, so picking these amulets wastes any potential for the rest to shine.

The worst contender is the shield amulet, as it is a one-hit-wonder. It gives invulnerability, but only for a short duration, and will completely disappear once you get hit. The Invincibility skill does more wonders than the shield amulet, so don’t even bother picking this one.

Now that we’ve discussed everything—from movement techniques to picking your arsenal—we’ll continue with a few tips.

Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks

tomb raider reloaded intro 7
Who puts plane ticks on their journal?

Now that we’ve discussed how the game works and what strategies to use, we’ll impart a few tips that don’t fit with the rest of what we have discussed. There are a lot of things left in Tomb Raider Reloaded that we need to discuss, and this section will provide that part.

You will need these to be the best adventurer there is, after all.

Finish Daily Tasks, Weekly Tasks, and Goals

tomb raider reloaded goals
Hey, it’s like my high school workload!

You are given a checklist every day and week, and finishing them will provide you with awesome rewards. Completing these quests doesn’t require much thought as you will do these tasks regularly. But the thought still counts—they give you uncommon gear and blueprints to finish upgrading items.

Goals are different from the other two. They incentivize you to complete the game for more gems, which is the rare currency of the game. As 10x pulls in the shop, require 300 Gems, being able to pull from the shop frequently gives you better equipment and crafting materials.

Try to finish them when they pop up. Of course, before that…

Log In Every Day for 4 Times

tomb raider reloaded daily discoveries
A new thing every day.

Logging in every day is also an incentive of its own. Every week, with the first day to play being the first day of the game, you get a select number of items from the login to obtain. Completing a week gives you gems, giving you ample resources to use in the shop.

However, the title says to log in 4 times a day. This is because the stamina system, which is the tickets, regenerates for about 10 minutes. In total, consuming all tickets and waiting for them to regenerate requires 200 minutes—the equivalent of 3 hours.

Of course, play the game at your leisure. No one has the time to do 12 hours per day. The game’s tasks are balanced so that doing a few things aside from doing chapter runs is enough to finish the day’s worth of work. Odd enough, you can finish the weekly tasks in a matter of a day or two. Still, use your time wisely.

Focus on Lara When Playing

tomb raider reloaded focus on lara
Where should my eyes go, then?

As a top-down action game, there will be, at times, a familiarity with a certain genre: bullet hell. So many projectiles, so many opponents, so little time to think of the next move. The following GIF above is an example of how many things you’d have to look at every time.

When playing the game, don’t focus on things beyond Lara. Focus on things that will affect her nearby. Potshots are easy to dodge, but looking at a multitude of them ruins your concentration and forces you to overthink.

Remember, none of the circles in the above GIF will harm Lara—not even the critters that scamper around the stage. What matters is what is directly going after her.

tomb raider reloaded extra 6
This isn’t a boss room, though?!

The rule of thumb is simple: if you see something that isn’t remotely Lara, start moving and act accordingly.

Tomb Raider Reloaded won’t be much of a bullet hell, but later stages introduce enemies that have little to no telegraphed attacks. Keep your eyes peeled, and you won’t be screwed over. That will be your overall game plan.

Don’t Dismantle Gear and Craft Them Instead

tomb raider reloaded craft
Three friendship bands, for one!

It’s tempting to dismantle gear and use any spare gold and manuals that you get from them. If you are planning to do so, then don’t. Obtaining items in Tomb Raider Reloaded is a rarity. Don’t throw away rare items that will eventually become better.

tomb raider reloaded craft 2
Yeah, we’re running out of jokes here.

Another is that the crafting system makes the dismantling process only useful for those desperate to upgrade their gear. It is more wasteful when it turns out you only need a few spare manuals to upgrade it, completely throwing a good weapon for one that wouldn’t work.

Going back to the throwing a good gear concept, crafting them allows you to cultivate a better item in the long run. An epic rarity gear needs 81 common rarities of the same item. As higher rarities give more bonuses (in its base level) than lower ones, it is a well-worth investment to keep your inventory untouched.

Join Any Events

tomb raider reloaded events 2
Prior to contrary belief, you do not need to go to the Andean Mountains for the event.

Finally, events. While Tomb Raider Reloaded isn’t a social game, it has lodes, heh, of events to participate in. These events are time-constrained, meaning you’d have to finish them before they disappear completely. They will, however, come back after a long period. However, no one waits for that long.

tomb raider reloaded events 1
More gear for stickers. A glorified prop hunt.

Doing the tasks specified in the event will give you bountiful rewards, with final rewards giving you massive amounts of gems. That, in itself, is a good enough reason to pursue said events. Another thing is that should you get the final reward, any excess event points or items will be traded with other existing items. You can get more blueprints or gear, thus more reason to grind further.

Conclusion

tomb raider reloaded conclusion
Ooh, shiny!

And that’s all there is for this beginner’s guide to Tomb Raider Reloaded! What’s left for you to discover is up to you and your newfound knowledge. New perils, new frights, and new adventures await! The game is constantly being updated, so it would be no surprise for you to be immersed all the time in this game!

If there’s anything that we have not yet uncovered in our journeys, leave a comment down below to help your resident scholar fill in a few gaps of knowledge. A few tips wouldn’t hurt, either.

tomb raider reloaded extra 7
And that’s not shiny at all!

Now go forth, adventurer! There’s treasure waiting for you at the very end!