Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis Pro Tips: 15 Tricks That Separate Good Players From Great Ones

After way too many hours in Tomb Raider games across three decades of this franchise, you pick up certain instincts. Ways of moving, of thinking about level design, of approaching combat that the game never explicitly teaches but that fundamentally change how you play.

Here's what I've gathered from the original, the remakes, the Survivor trilogy, and everything we've seen from Legacy of Atlantis so far.

1. The Pistols Are Actually Your Best Weapon

I know. You find the shotgun and it feels amazing. The magnums hit hard. But the dual pistols have unlimited ammo, solid accuracy at range, and in the remake the fire rate is significantly faster than the original. If you're good at landing headshots, the pistols will carry you through 80% of combat encounters.

Save the shotgun for bosses and big enemies. Use the magnums for the Atlantean mutants. Everything else dies to well-placed pistol fire and you never run out of ammo.

2. Backflip Shooting is Back

The original Tomb Raider's most iconic combat move was the backflip while firing. It looked ridiculous. It was also incredibly effective because most enemies couldn't track you through it.

The remake keeps the backflip but makes it a deliberate combat option rather than the default way to fight. Jump backward while aiming and Lara flips and fires. It works best against charging enemies. The timing creates distance while dealing damage. Against wolves and the big cats in Greece, this move trivializes encounters that would otherwise be frantic.

3. Grenades Aren't Just for Combat

The Survivor trilogy gave Lara grenades. The remake keeps them. But everyone uses them on enemies when they should be using them on the environment.

Weak walls, collapsed passages, some trap mechanisms, all of these can be destroyed with grenades instead of waiting for the intended puzzle solution. It won't always work. Some objects are indestructible for progression reasons. But enough of them aren't that carrying a couple grenades for exploration is genuinely efficient.

4. Water is Your Fastest Travel Route

The swimming controls in the remake are much better than the original, which had some of the worst underwater controls in 3D gaming. Now Lara moves smoothly, and diving into water from height skips climbing down entire structures.

If you see a body of water below you and you need to get down fast, jump in. Fall damage doesn't apply to water entries. You can skip entire climbing sequences this way in the Greece Cistern and parts of the Egypt river sections.

5. The Flare Trick

The remake includes flares, which weren't in the original. They light up dark areas obviously. But they also reveal hidden symbols on walls. Atlantean writing that's invisible in normal light glows faintly when a flare is nearby.

This is apparently how you find some of the most hidden relics in the game. Walk through dark tombs tossing flares at walls and watching for symbols. It's slow. It's methodical. It's very old school Tomb Raider and I love that they included it.

6. Crouch Walking Reduces Enemy Detection

Not a stealth game, but the remake has basic detection mechanics. Animals have hearing ranges. Atlantean mutants have line of sight detection. Crouch walking reduces the range at which both detect you.

It's situational. You won't be sneaking through the entire game. But in sections where you're low on health and don't want to fight every enemy, crouch walking past patrol routes is viable. The Survivor trilogy overused stealth. This game gives you the option without forcing it.

7. The First Shot Bonus

If you hit an enemy before they detect you, the first shot does bonus damage. It's not a massive multiplier but it's enough to one-shot weaker enemies like wolves and bats. The game never explains this mechanic. You just notice that sometimes enemies die faster and eventually realize why.

8. Medipacks Are Scarcer Than You Think

The original game was generous with medipacks. You'd finish with dozens unused. The remake tightens the supply considerably, especially on higher difficulties.

Don't use a medipack for small damage. Wait until you're below half health. The small medipacks heal about 30%. The large ones are closer to 70%. Save the large ones for boss fights specifically. If you're exploring and take fall damage, just deal with it until you find a save point, they usually refill health.

9. Save Points Heal You

Speaking of, the remake uses a checkpoint and save point hybrid system. Manual saves are available at campfires scattered through levels. Finding and activating a campfire refills your health fully. So before using a medipack, check if there's a save point nearby.

10. The Grab Cancel

If you start pulling up onto a ledge and realize enemies are waiting at the top, you can press crouch to drop back down instead of committing to the climb. The original game locked you into the animation. The remake lets you cancel mid-climb. It's saved me from ambushes more times than I can count in the preview footage.

11. Jump-Fire Combo

Jumping while shooting gives your bullets a slight damage bonus and makes Lara harder to hit. It's not documented anywhere. It's just a thing the combat system does. If you're in an open arena with nowhere to hide, jumping and firing is more effective than standing still and firing. Simple but easy to forget in the moment.

12. Surface Swimming is Faster Than Diving

When swimming across large bodies of water, stay on the surface. Lara moves noticeably faster on the surface than underwater. Dive only when you need to go under an obstacle or reach an underwater passage. This matters in the Greece Cistern where you spend way too much time in the water.

13. Corner Shooting

If Lara is behind cover, you can aim around corners without exposing her full body. The gun arm extends and you can fire with reduced accuracy but full safety. The game's tutorial mentions cover but doesn't explicitly teach corner shooting. It's the safest way to deal with enemies that have ranged attacks.

14. Sprint Jump at Ledges

Sprinting before jumping off a ledge gives you more distance. This is obvious in most games. What isn't obvious is that the sprint jump also gives you more vertical reach. Lara grabs ledges at the peak of a sprint jump that she would miss with a standing jump. If a platform looks just barely out of reach, sprint at it.

15. Listen to Lara

Alix Wilton Regan's performance as Lara includes contextual dialogue that changes based on what's happening. She doesn't narrate puzzle solutions like the Survivor trilogy, but she does give subtle hints. If she says "that looks unstable" while looking at a wall, you can probably break it. If she comments on the cold, you're near an exit from an underground area.

The dialogue is reactive enough that paying attention to it genuinely helps. The game respects you enough not to shout the answers. There's more of this stuff too. Weapon animation cancels. Enemy-specific stagger thresholds. Hidden ledge grab ranges. I could go on but half the fun is discovering it yourself.