Rise of the Tomb Raider Endurance Mode: Survival Guide

What Is Endurance Mode, and How Do You Start?

Rise of the Tomb Raider endurance mode makes finding your next meal as urgent as finding your next artifact. Stranded in a procedurally generated Siberian forest, Lara must manage hunger and warmth while searching crypts, surviving ambushes, and preparing an escape. Every expedition resets her progress, so the resources you gather early determine how much exploring you can afford later.

The objective is to collect artifacts, survive, and leave through a successful helicopter extraction. There is no in-game map, and the forest changes between expeditions.

To begin:

1. Open Expeditions from the main menu.
2. Select Endurance as the mode.
3. Choose the Tutorial or Siberian Wilderness.
4. Set your difficulty, challenges, and Expedition Cards before starting a regular expedition.

The tutorial introduces food, warmth, a short crypt, and extraction. Challenges and cards cannot be selected for it.

An expedition must be completed in one sitting. You cannot save a run and resume it later. Campaign upgrades do not carry into the mode, and skills, equipment, and weapons earned during an expedition reset when you start another. Cards can change your starting setup.

Endurance is available through the standalone DLC or Season Pass and is included in the Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration edition on Steam.

For PC players, the game supports these platforms and features:

PC feature	Support
Platforms	Windows, macOS, Linux
Controller support	Full controller support
Steam features	Steam Achievements, Steam Leaderboards

Difficulty affects points earned from enemy kills: Adventurer gives 0.5x, Tomb Raider 1x, Seasoned Raider 2x, and Survivor 3x. Choose Adventurer while learning the survival systems; use the higher settings when pursuing score becomes your priority.

Keep Hunger and Warmth Under Control

Unless you selected A Little Late, open the strongbox on the back of the broken snowcat before leaving. Its contents vary, but it provides starting supplies such as arrows, cloth, hardwood, oil, and ammunition. A Little Late requires leaving that chest unopened until you have collected five artifacts.

Use Survival Instinct to highlight resources as you move. Gather hardwood, food, and crafting materials before either survival meter becomes critical.

Build a food reserve

The Hunger meter gradually drains, moving through green, yellow, and red before flashing when Lara is starving. Sprinting consumes hunger faster.

Berries and small animals provide smaller meals. Deer, boars, wolves, big cats, and bears restore more hunger, although hunting predators introduces an obvious combat risk.

Hunger can be overfilled. Food collected after the main meter fills adds an outer reserve. Keep that reserve topped up whenever food is available, especially before entering a crypt.

Hunt nearby non-predatory animals before committing to dangerous prey. A full stomach gives you more freedom to explore without turning every encounter into an emergency meal.

Plan around fire

Warmth also drains over time, but it cannot be overfilled. Nights, blizzards, and water accelerate heat loss. Once Lara becomes dangerously cold, her movement slows.

Base camp fires require 5 hardwood to light. They eventually burn out, so keep enough wood to relight a camp after returning from a crypt. Pre-lit fires at enemy camps offer another way to warm up without spending hardwood.

Lanterns work differently: carrying one stops warmth from dropping but does not restore it. Lara cannot fight while carrying a lantern.

During nights and blizzards, explore within reach of a known fire. Turn back while you still have enough warmth to reach it, and avoid entering water unless your route requires it.

Fire arrows and other flames can provide emergency warmth, but they also damage Lara. Use a proper campfire whenever possible; standing in damaging fire is a last resort or a deliberate challenge requirement.

Unlock Resource Skills and Expand Your Storage

Without cards changing her loadout, Lara begins with a Recurve Bow, Vintage Climbing Axe, and Combat Knife. Additional firearms can be scavenged from defeated enemies, then upgraded at base camps.

Spend early skill points on gathering, tracking, and carrying supplies:

Skill	Cost	Effect
Naturalist	1 Skill Point	Increases resources gathered from natural sources
Survivalist	1 Skill Point	Increases resources gathered from man-made sources
Animal Instincts	1 Skill Point	Highlights animals with Survival Instinct and reveals tracking clues
Crafting Mastery	1 Skill Point	Allows crafting of larger resource pouches

Unlock Naturalist and Survivalist early to increase the materials collected during ordinary exploration. Add Animal Instincts to make hunting and tracking easier, then use Crafting Mastery to expand your carrying options.

Two equipment upgrades deserve attention:

• Satchel: Requires 5 Cloth and 15 Hides and increases resource capacity.
• Rucksack: Requires 9 Cloth, 20 Hides, 1 Bear Hide, and the Satchel, providing a further storage increase.

Collect hides from animals you already need for food. Delay hunting a bear for the Rucksack until you have weapons and healing supplies for the fight.

Visit lit base camps to spend skill points and upgrade equipment. Codices and Sarcophagi inside crypts can also grant skills, giving exploration value beyond the artifacts themselves.

Navigate the Forest and Search Crypts Safely

With no map to consult, use discovered landmarks to organize your route. Survival Instinct displays nearby points of interest after discovery, helping you retrace your path between crypts, ruins, camps, and extraction sites.

For A Little Late, travel in a consistent direction and keep discovered landmarks behind you. After collecting five artifacts, follow those landmarks back toward the snowcat.

The main locations serve different purposes:

• Crypts: Contain artifacts and a Codex or Sarcophagus deeper inside. Every crypt has a base camp near its entrance.
• Ruins: Contain scattered artifacts and resources. Look for a base camp in the smaller building near the tower.
• Enemy camps: Offer supplies, throwable-weapon materials, and sometimes food or a fire.
• Shelters: Slow warmth loss and contain resources.
• Signal Fires: Provide extraction points.

Enter crypts with full meters

Fill hunger and warmth before heading underground. Crypts can take time to navigate, and food inside is limited. Bring enough hardwood to light the entrance camp again after returning.

The Intuitive skill highlights collectibles through walls. The Well Read card reveals traps in red when using Survival Instinct.

Watch for cracked floors over spike pits, ankle traps, and ceiling spike traps. Move slowly through unfamiliar passages and inspect the route again on your way out; some ceiling traps trigger during the return trip.

For Skillful Raider, avoid activating traps altogether. Jumping clear after triggering one can still ruin the challenge. Turn back from a risky floor trap rather than gambling a long expedition on it.

Pick fights deliberately

Trinity soldiers appear early, while stronger armored enemies and Deathless Ones enter the expedition as it continues. Listen for Lara’s warnings and watch for her automatic crouch when threats are nearby.

Wolves announce themselves with howls, while bears can be heard roaring. Big cats are dangerous because they can be difficult to escape once alerted.

Use high ground when predators close in. Avoid starting a fight while hunger or warmth is already critical: combat consumes time you may need to reach food or fire.

Use Expedition Cards to Shape Your Run

Solo expeditions allow up to five cards. Cards can supply weapons, grant skills through outfits, ease survival, or add restrictions in exchange for score modifiers.

Choose cards around the objective you selected. A survival challenge and a leaderboard attempt reward different compromises.

Card	Effect	Score modifier
Small Game Hunter	Small animals provide twice as much food	-25%
Hot Blooded	Killing enemies grants a small amount of warmth	-25%
Bloodlust	Killing enemies grants a small amount of food	-50%
Frostbite	Temperature drops faster with each passing day	+50%
Insatiable	Hunger increases with each passing day	+50%
Deep Freeze	Warmth drains at a slower, steady rate but cannot be restored	+100%

For trap-focused challenges, equip Well Read to highlight hazards with Survival Instinct. For Still Tastes Good, Toxicity supplies unlimited poison arrows.

Master-class Outfit Cards unlock every skill across the skill trees, while Weapon Cards can improve the starting arsenal. Check score penalties before using cards that simplify the run.

Read restrictions carefully. Deep Freeze changes warmth into a resource you cannot replenish, while Rabbit Malnutrition makes eating small-animal meat increase hunger. Build your plan around those effects before entering the forest.

Select Challenges Before Chasing Achievements

Solo Endurance contains 48 challenges, with five selectable per expedition. Fifteen have associated achievements, although trophy availability differs by platform.

Select the corresponding challenge before starting. Performing its actions without equipping it does not unlock the associated achievement or trophy. Challenge progress must be completed during one expedition.

These objectives cover exploration, survival, and extraction:

Challenge	Requirement	Detail to plan around
Who Needs a Map?	Locate 5 crypts	Discovery notifications track your count
Archaeologist	Collect at least 5 artifacts	Complete the collection within one expedition
Master Archaeologist	Collect at least 10 artifacts	Combine artifact gathering with crypt exploration
Happy Camper	Survive for 5 days	Completion occurs at the beginning of Day 6
Vacation	Escape after surviving for 7 days	Surviving alone is insufficient; extract successfully
Great Haul	Escape after 10 days with at least 10 artifacts	Prepare both a survival route and an extraction reserve
Nope	Escape on Day 1 without recovering artifacts	Leave collectibles untouched
Skillful Raider	Open 5 Codices or Sarcophagi without getting caught in a trap	Avoid triggering traps throughout the attempt

A survival “day” includes both daytime and nighttime. Do not extract during the fifth daytime period expecting Happy Camper to count five complete days.

Combine compatible objectives. Artifact collection, crypt discovery, and longer survival can progress together. Save Nope for a separate run because collecting even one artifact conflicts with its requirement.

Several combat and hunting challenges need precise execution:

• Still Tastes Good: Eat five wolves killed by poison damage. Shoot poison arrows into the ground near wolves so the fumes kill them, then collect the meat.
• Well Done: Eat five birds, squirrels, or rabbits killed with fire.
• Fast Reflexes: Destroy three ceiling spike traps after being caught. Keep a fast-firing weapon loaded before entering trap-heavy passages.
• One Way to Do It: Warm up from freezing by standing in damaging fire. Ordinary campfires do not satisfy it.

Prepare ammunition and healing supplies before attempting challenges that require taking damage or triggering hazards.

Reserve Supplies for Extraction

A successful expedition ends at a Signal Fire, shown with a bonfire icon through Survival Instinct. Lighting one requires 5 Cloth and 5 Oil.

Keep those materials in reserve once you are ready to leave. Spending your final cloth or oil on combat crafting can force another supply search before extraction.

To escape:

1. Find a Signal Fire or return to one you discovered earlier.
2. Refill hunger and warmth and prepare ammunition.
3. Light the fire using 5 Cloth and 5 Oil.
4. Survive while the helicopter approaches.
5. Locate its hanging rope and interact with it to leave.

The signal attracts nearby enemies. Longer expeditions can bring armored troops and Deathless Ones into the extraction fight, so prepare before lighting it.

Look toward the helicopter if the rope is difficult to spot. Completing a challenge that says “escape the forest” requires boarding the helicopter; calling it does not finish the objective.

Co-op Endurance: Share Supplies and Stay Within Reach

Online co-op is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It is not available on Xbox 360.

From Expeditions, select Endurance, choose Multiplayer under Players, and continue to matchmaking. You can invite a friend or search for another player. If you select different difficulty settings, the lower setting applies to the expedition.

Each player chooses two cards and two challenges. The four selected challenges apply to both players, and most card effects are shared. Outfit Cards affect only the player equipping them, including any skills granted by that outfit.

Stay close enough to share

Food and resources are shared automatically during collection when both players are close enough. Look for the two-person icon beside the pickup prompt before collecting something your partner needs.

A carried lantern also protects a nearby partner from warmth loss. Use Survival Instinct to locate a separated teammate through the green player beacon.

Check your partner’s hunger and warmth indicators before moving on. Collecting food together can keep both players supplied without splitting up to hunt.

Protect the shared revive pool

Co-op starts with two shared extra lives, with a maximum of three. Opening a crypt’s Codex or Sarcophagus restores one life up to that cap.

When a player falls, the survivor has one minute to reach and revive them. Missing that window ends the expedition even if extra lives remain. A death with no lives available also ends the run.

Enter crypts together and stay within rescue distance. Triggered spike pits temporarily retract their spikes to allow a revive, then reset afterward.

For No One Left Behind, complete three revives in one expedition. Because the team begins with two lives, open a Codex or Sarcophagus to obtain the additional life needed. Revives performed by either player contribute to the shared challenge.

Other co-op objectives reward coordination:

• Teamwork: Recover from freezing beside a campfire lit by your partner.
• A Dinner for Two: Share meat from three wolves.
• Sisters of Athena: Kill a combined total of 25 enemies.
• Master and Apprentice: Extract after surviving 10 days with at least 20 artifacts.

For Adventure Besties, have the host select the challenge and personally collect exactly five medium artifacts and five large artifacts before extraction. Use Intuitive to help identify Codices and Sarcophagi while exploring crypts.

At extraction, the helicopter drops two ropes. Each player must grab one; coordinate the final approach so both of you can leave.