Shadow of the Tomb Raider Difficulty

There are multiple Difficulty and Accessibility Settings in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. These can be used to customize the game.

Accessibility

These settings are intended to help people with disabilities play the game.

Video and Gameplay

• Optional Y axis inversion
• Toggling vibration on and off
• Reducing Camera Shake
• Option to centre the camera horizontally

This soft locks the camera on Lara’s back; only one of the analogue sticks required (for movement), while the other stick can still be used to move the camera if desired

• Option to tap rather than hold the left trigger for aiming
• Option to switch between the right (default) or left stick for aiming when looking down sights
• Option to hold button press prompts rather than repeated tapping
• Option to push the stick directionally for crank control prompts rather than rotate
• Adjustable aim sensitivity

Audio Accessibility

• Subtitles: Off, on with colour, or on without colour
• Closed Captioning: Display additional or interpretive information such as sound effects, musical cues, and other relevant audio information

Difficulty

There are four presets where all aspects of the game are set to one level of difficulty: Smart and Resourceful (easy), Rite of Passage (normal), One with the Jungle (hard), and Deadly Obsession (very hard). This is comparable to the way difficulty works in the previous games.

Furthermore the difficulty of the game can be changed independently for the three aspects puzzles, traversal, and combat - even during gameplay. This is accomplished by four unique settings: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Deadly Obsession. This way it is e.g. possible to set puzzles to hard, combat to easy, and traversal to deadly, which makes for a unique difficulty for each player, instead of only having three or four options that affect all areas of the game.

To get the Trophies/Achievements associated with Difficulty, it is possible to use one of the presets and then move one of the aspects one level down; e.g. setting puzzle and traversal to high and combat to normal still counts as an overall hard setting.

Survival Instincts can be used for finding e.g. the next objective, interesting location features, or enemies. Additionally Beacon (showing the next objective location) and Glow (showing interactable objects) can be toggled on or off regardless of difficulty settings - except for the Deadly Obsession setting, where Survival Instincts, Beacons and Glow remain off.

Combat

• Easy

• Aim assist enabled
• Enemies have lower health and do less damage
• Ammunition boxes are plentiful
• Enemies have illuminated silhouettes

• Normal

• Enemies have normal health and damage
• Ammunition boxes are rare
• Enemies have illuminated silhouettes

• Hard

• Enemies have increased health, do more damage and locate Lara more quickly.
• No health regeneration in combat
• Ammunition boxes are rare
• No hit markers on the reticle
• Enemies are not highlighted in Survival Instincts

• Deadly Obsession

• Same as hard, but no HUD icon when Lara is being detected by an enemy

Exploration

• Easy

• Obvious white paint on critical path
• Longer saving grab timer
• Base camps are lit

• Normal

• Discreet white paint on critical path
• Normal saving grab timer
• Base camps are unlit

Hard

• No white paint on critical path
• Reduced saving grab timer
• No Survival Instinct during exploration
• Base camps are unlit

• Deadly Obsession

• Same as Hard
• Base camps are unlit and require resources to light
• Game only saves at Base camps

Puzzles

• Easy

• Lara gives direct hints on next action to perform
• Interactable objects are highlighted in Survival Instincts
• Objects necessary to progress highlighted in blue during Survival Instincts
• Longer window of opportunity for timed mechanics

• Normal

• Lara gives general hints on the next action to perform
• Interactable objects are highlighted in Survival Instincts
• Normal window of opportunity for timed mechanics

• Hard/Deadly Obsession

• No hints are given by Lara
• No Survival Instincts
• Shorter window of opportunity for timer mechanics
• The Survival Instincts Beacon (which highlights the next objective location) and Glow (objects Lara can interact with) can also be toggled on or off regardless of difficulty settings, except when on the Deadly Obsession setting.