Rise of the Tomb Raider Best Skills to Get First: Guide

Which Skills Should You Get First?

The Rise of the Tomb Raider best skills to get first are Avid Learner for exploration XP and Breath Control for steadier charged bow shots. Early points matter because XP bonuses reward you throughout the adventure, while better aiming helps you handle encounters with Lara’s starting weapon. Move defensive skills up your list on higher difficulties, where surviving a firefight deserves more attention.

Start with those two upgrades, then choose your remaining early purchases around the activities you actually use:

• Avid Learner: Earn additional XP from survival caches, documents, relics, and challenges. Take it before spending hours collecting.
• Breath Control: Extend the steady aiming window for charged bow shots. Buy it early if Lara’s aim starts wavering before you can line up a headshot.
• Arrow Retrieval: Gain a chance to recover arrows when looting enemies killed with the bow. Take it if keeping your quiver stocked interrupts your progress.
• Animal Instincts: Highlight animals through Survival Instincts and follow larger animals through footprints and blood trails. Choose it when hunting for upgrade materials.
• Eye for Detail: Highlight challenge objects through Survival Instincts. Pick it up early if you intend to complete area challenges.
• Lightfoot: Reduce damage from falls. Take it for faster traversal, but continue avoiding lethal drops and spike pits.
• Resourceful Combatant: Earn more XP from enemies killed or knocked out with crafted handheld objects. Choose it if you regularly turn environmental objects into weapons.

You do not need to concentrate every point in one tree. Brawler covers durability and close combat, Hunter includes bow abilities and resource gathering, and Survivor provides exploration and crafting upgrades. Mix them to address the problems you encounter.

Official page: Rise of the Tomb Raider™ (store.steampowered.com)

Prioritize Finesse and Crafting Upgrades at Tier 2

Image: Steam / Crystal Dynamics

Tier 2 opens after mastering eight skills across any category. Individual abilities can also require a prerequisite skill or particular equipment, so opening the tier does not remove those requirements.

Take Finesse early once this tier becomes available. It awards bonus XP for successive headshots, stealth kills, and Death From Above kills, with larger bonuses for longer chains.

Build your encounters around qualifying kills. Aim carefully, isolate enemies for stealth takedowns, and avoid ending a streak with an ordinary body-shot kill. Missing a shot does not itself break the chain, so take another shot rather than rushing into a less precise kill.

Follow with resource and capacity upgrades when gathering starts slowing you down:

Skill	Tree	Effect
Crafting Mastery	Survivor	Enables crafting large-capacity ammo and resource pouches at base camps and increases ammo crafted on the run
Naturalist	Hunter	Increases natural crafting resources gathered from each source
Survivalist	Hunter	Increases man-made crafting resources gathered from each source

Crafting Mastery unlocks the pouch recipes; you still need to craft the equipment. Visit the base camp’s crafting options and spend the required materials to benefit from the larger capacity.

Choose Naturalist when natural supplies are your bottleneck. Choose Survivalist when man-made materials are holding up crafting and upgrades. If you repeatedly reach your carrying limit, address capacity before investing further in gathering.

Build Your Combat Skills Around Your Weapon

Image: Steam / Crystal Dynamics

Bow: Improve Aim Before Investing in Multiple Targets

After Breath Control, take Nerves of Steel if you still need more time to aim fully charged shots. It requires Breath Control and access to Tier 2.

Add Dead Eye if you struggle to judge whether your crosshair is actually over an enemy’s head. Its headshot indicator helps with enemies peeking from cover and pairs naturally with Finesse.

The multiple-target bow path takes a longer investment:

1. Double Shot: Lock onto two separate targets and fire at them simultaneously while zoomed in with a fully drawn bow.
2. Triple Shot: Increase that attack to three targets. It requires Double Shot and Tier 3 access.
3. True Shot: Make Triple Shot’s locked arrows target heads instead of bodies. It requires Triple Shot and Tier 3 access.

Tier 3 opens after mastering 19 skills across any category. Plan toward this combination if you enjoy the bow, but prioritize abilities you can use immediately before committing to its later upgrades.

Do not expect Double Shot alone to deliver automatic headshots; that change comes from True Shot.

Stealth: Speed Up Close Takedowns

Take Deadly Force at Tier 2 if you frequently approach enemies for stealth finishers. It makes those kills faster, reducing the time spent completing a takedown.

For routes involving drops near enemies, consider Stealth Landing. It requires Lightfoot and makes landings silent. Continue toward Silent Killer at Tier 3 if you want stealth kills that do not alert nearby foes; Stealth Landing is its prerequisite.

Choose Body Trap Specialist for encounters where enemies can be drawn toward a corpse. It lets you turn bodies into poison-gas traps. Set the trap, then use positioning or sound to bring another enemy close enough to trigger it.

Guns and Explosives: Buy for Equipment You Use

Take Scavenger early if you rely on firearms and need more ammunition from enemy corpses.

For explosive combat, pair Incendiary Bombs with Resourceful Combatant. Incendiary Bombs enables explosive gas-can bombs and radio proximity mines, while Resourceful Combatant rewards crafted handheld-object kills with additional XP.

At Tier 2, consider Demolitions Expert to increase the blast radius of crafted handheld explosives.

Leave weapon-specific ammunition skills until you have their required equipment:

• Dragonfire Shells requires the pump-action shotgun and enables incendiary shells.
• Hollow-Point Bullets requires the revolver and enables higher-damage pistol ammunition.
• Grenadier requires the rifle’s grenade launcher upgrade and enables crafting its explosive ammunition.

Move Defense Up the List on Higher Difficulties

Take Thick-Skinned early if gunfire and melee attacks are repeatedly ending encounters. Its damage reduction applies directly to those threats.

Image: Steam / Crystal Dynamics

Choose Iron Hide when fire and explosions cause more trouble, especially when enemies force you out of cover with grenades. These skills protect against different damage types, so match your purchase to what is hurting you.

At Tier 2, take Field Medic if healing leaves you exposed for too long. It speeds up bandaging and stacks with the Fast Healer tomb reward.

Later defensive options include:

• Heart of Stone: Further reduces gunfire and melee damage, stacking with Thick-Skinned.
• Strong Medicine: Provides temporary damage resistance after bandaging during combat.

Both are Tier 3 purchases. Move them ahead of optional offensive upgrades when you need a larger margin for mistakes.

If enemies frequently reach melee range, start with Dodge Counter. Add Duelist Reflexes for a wider counter timing window, then pursue Dodge Kill as that tier becomes available. Invest in this path when you use counters regularly enough to benefit from the prerequisite purchases.

Collect Useful Skills From Challenge Tombs

Some abilities come from challenge tomb codices rather than spending a level-up point. Include these tombs in your route for rewards that support healing, bow combat, and crafting.

Challenge tomb	Area	Skill reward	Effect
Ice Ship	Glacial Cavern	Ancient Abilities	Fire two arrows in quick succession without delay
Voice of God	Soviet Installation	Inner Strength	Instantly restore health once per combat encounter when critically injured
Ancient Cistern	Soviet Installation	Natural Instincts	Reveal nearby natural crafting resources on the map and through Survival Instincts
House of the Afflicted	Geothermal Valley	Fast Healer	Bandage wounds faster; stacks with Field Medic
Pit of Judgment	Geothermal Valley	Geologist	Gather more magnesite from ore veins and gain access to gathering chromite

Use Ancient Abilities for rapid follow-up shots, but remember that it cannot be used simultaneously with Double Shot or Triple Shot.

Visit Pit of Judgment when upgrades call for chromite. Geologist enables gathering that material from ore veins, giving this tomb a direct role in equipment progression.

Which Skills Can Wait?

Delay upgrades whose benefits rarely come into play during your run.

Master of the Land reveals nearby exotic animals through Survival Instincts and requires Animal Instincts. Take it when you need exotic hides; postpone it if you already know where to hunt.

Rapid Crafting speeds up crafting on the move. Leave it for later if you prepare ammunition between fights instead of crafting under pressure.

Death From Above requires the combat knife and Tier 2 access. Buy it when your stealth routes regularly place Lara above enemies.

Bow Expert combines a close-range finisher with better chances of looting special arrows. Move it up once you use special ammunition frequently; leave weapon-finisher skills behind broader upgrades if you rarely finish incapacitated enemies.

At Tier 3, choose Intuitive for collectible hunting or Death Cloud Arrows for stronger poison-arrow coverage. Intuitive reveals nearby collectibles through walls and marks crypt entrances, while Death Cloud Arrows increases poison-cloud size and duration. Spend that point on the activity you are about to tackle.