Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider

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Extreme Survivor

Extreme Survivor

Finish the game on Extreme Survivor difficulty

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0.05%

How to unlock the Extreme Survivor achievement in Rise of the Tomb Raider - Definitive Guide

As the in-game description says, Extreme Survivor difficulty is the same as Survivor (enemies are tougher and you can only get health back by using healing items and resting at campfires) but you can only save your progress at campfires.

Having now beaten the game on both Survivor and Extreme Survivor, I can safely say that this achievement is nowhere near as hard as it sounds. If you can beat Survivor, you can beat Extreme Survivor. As such, this guide will be written mainly for those who have beaten the game on Survivor. Do NOT attempt this as a first playthrough. This does stack with all the other "beat the game" achievements (thanks to Lazyslothboy001 for confirming this), but it's just not worth it.

First of all, anything and everything you learned in your Survivor playthrough still applies:
*Stealth past as many groups of enemies as possible
*Use poison arrows if you're in a jam, such as on the enemies with shields, multiple enemies standing next to each other (either having a conversation or funneling in through a door), or the annoying enemies that show up towards the end of the game (speaking of which, go for the archers first, as they're the only ones who can hit you at range, then shoot or melee the others to save ammo, as they can't hit you fast enough to be a threat)
*Always be on the lookout for healing supplies (or supplies of any kind)

For this playthrough, I'd recommend this:
*Save every chance you get. If you save and then kill a group of enemies nearby, save again. If you save and pick up a resource immediately after, save again. If you know you're about to come to a hard fight, run back (if you can) and save. It might be tedious, but it may end up saving you a lot of heartache.
*If there's a section you're having trouble with, practice in the chapter replay section. That goes double for the mandatory tombs (you don't want to do the majority of a puzzle, fall off and die, and have to start from the beginning)
*Choose your upgrades wisely! Especially early on when you're more vulnerable, having the right upgrades can be crucial (though by the end, you'll likely not need any more).

A lot of this comes down to personal preference, but here are my recommendations for the skills:
Tier 1 Skills:
Thick-Skinned - You take less damage from gunfire and melee attacks. Speaks for itself. Get this one either first or second.
Avid Learner - Gives you more XP from getting collectibles (more on that later). Get this one first or second.
Iron Hide - Lets you take more damage from explosions and fire. Also very useful. Get this one after thick-skinned.
Scavenger - Gives you more ammo from looted enemies. Resources can be pretty slim, so this one is also pretty useful.
Lightfoot - Lets you take zero damage from (non-lethal) falls by hitting cn_B to roll. Speeds things up slightly and means you waste fewer healing items.
Tier 2 Skills:
Naturalist and Survivalist - Gives you more stuff from natural and man-made resources respectively. Again, resources can be pretty slim, so these WILL come in handy.
Death From Above - Lets you insta-kill enemies by hitting cn_Y when above them. Not crucial, but there are a few spots where it can come in handy (such as one spot at the end of the game).
Tier 3 Skills:
Heart of Stone - You take even less damage from gunfire and melee attacks. Again, self explanatory. Get this as soon as you can unlock tier 3 skills.
Death Cloud Arrows - Increases the size of the gas cloud that poison arrows make. This makes the already over-powered poison arrows even more powerful, so it's very helpful.
Cluster Bomb Arrows - Gives grenade arrows a secondary explosion after impact. This makes the grenade arrows almost as powerful as the poison arrows (though they're useless in stealth). I found myself running low on mushrooms a lot, so this is a good backup.
Strong Medicine - You take less damage for a short while after healing. Not crucial, but can be useful in a tough fight.
Tomb Skills (extra skills you get from completing optional tombs):
Inner Strength (Voice of God tomb) - fully heals you from zero health once per fight. This essentially gives you a free healing item once per fight (sometimes twice depending on what the game considers a new fight) and it saved my ass so many times it's not even funny.
(here's a list of the other tomb skills if you want to look, as they're not listed anywhere in the game itself: http://www.gameskinny.com/h29yz/rise-of-the-tomb-raider-9-hi...)

It's worth noting that, while this shouldn't be a collectible run, picking up collectibles and doing challenges will give you a lot of experience (much more than killing enemies) so it's worth going out of your way to get some of them early on (though you won't need to by the end). I got every collectible in Syria (the first area) when I first played it, so by the time I got to the first campsite, I already had two skill points ready to go. This is why I advocate so hard for Avid learner, as it will make getting new skills much faster.

While I can't confirm this, it seems like some resources may spawn less frequently on Extreme than normal Survivor. I definitely noticed some resources (such as the half-eaten deer in the Soviet Outpost) not coming back after I collected it once, but I think certain animals may also spawn slower on Extreme. Not a game-changer, but worth keeping in mind.

Additionally, I'd recommend saving up for the first upgraded resource pouch and getting it very quickly. This will let you keep more herbs and mushrooms with you so you can make more healing items and poison arrows respectively. You may also want to get the large arrow pouch to hold more poison arrows. Last thing, if you have the season pass costumes, I HIGHLY recommend using the Spirit Weaver outfit (part of the Remnant Pack). This will give you an almost 50/50 shot of not using either the herb or the cloth (or both) when healing, so it will save you a bunch of resources.

After doing all of this, there was only one part of the game where I really struggled, and that was the ending (after the "point of no return" message), so I'm putting up a spoiler tag for this part:


Like I said, this achievement is nowhere near as hard as it sounds, it's just nerve-racking at times (I often found myself really worried that I'd get through a long section only to die in a stupid way, but I never did). If I can do it, so can you. Aside from that final section, I only died around eight or nine times, most of which were from me missing a jump or doing something stupid. Be smart, have a little faith, and the achievement is yours. Happy Hunting.

Sorry for writing a novel for this, I'm just trying to be thorough. If I missed something or you have something to add, leave a comment and I'll edit. Do that if you leave a negative vote as well, as not doing so doesn't help anyone.
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28 Nov 2016 20:01

61 Comments
RoXx, yes
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By LuckyDeggaR on 20 Dec 2021 07:13
Thanks
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By on 29 May 2017 15:55
Raging rider unfortunately not :(
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By FarawayRhyme7 on 10 Sep 2020 16:34
If you use the TA walkthrough, this is very easy even for your first run...
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By Dr Marty on 09 Oct 2020 18:07
Thanks. Fixed.
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By DarkWingSpartan on 29 Nov 2016 18:00
Good guide.
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By DJ RJester on 30 Nov 2016 12:26
Looks impossible, but i will try roll
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By It00sh1 on 30 Nov 2016 18:37
If I finish the game on the "Extreme Survivor" difficulty, will I gain the achievement of finishing on the "Survival" difficulty?
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By It00sh1 on 02 Dec 2016 23:20
Yes, but like I said in the solution, not doing a standard Survivor playthrough first (to at least practice the stealth and healing aspects) is a TERRIBLE idea.
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By DarkWingSpartan on 02 Dec 2016 23:27
Yes, I have already finished the game once time, now I'm in "Extreme Survivor".
PS: I finished first time on "Seasoned Raider" difficulty.
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By It00sh1 on 03 Dec 2016 00:33
I'm at the end of the game, it was easy so far. My deaths were (mostly) on the jumps too.
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By It00sh1 on 06 Dec 2016 02:20
Told ya. :)
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By DarkWingSpartan on 06 Dec 2016 02:24
Finished
I only died 2x at the end clap
Thanks for the guide
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By It00sh1 on 06 Dec 2016 17:03
So wait... this achievement is to do the entire ROTTR story in Extreme Survivor mode? Or is it to just do the DLC?
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By count023 on 10 Dec 2016 10:12
@count023 the entire game
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By IstIngiliz on 10 Dec 2016 14:39
Hrm, not particularly difficult, all i can recommend is get that satchel upgraded early, lots of poison arrows really helped in the final levels against the Deathless, Grenades aren't anywhere near as effective.
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By count023 on 16 Dec 2016 00:51
I completed the game before Extreme Survivor was added and then when I go back to reload it, it asks me what difficulty I want (with Extreme Survivor being there.) If I choose ES difficulty, will I automatically get the achievement?
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By Tranierx on 16 Dec 2016 23:11
No, you'll have to beat the game a second time on a new save file.
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By DarkWingSpartan on 16 Dec 2016 23:42
After Point of no return, was much easier than I anticipated from "Normal" difficult experience. Didnt die once, used lot of poison arrows and flamable objects around. Just stay out of the helicopters way and you will be fine. Anyway the quide is solid, migh have dodged couple deaths if id found the "Inner Strength (Voice of God tomb)" skill earlier :D Poison arrows are OP, didnt use them in my 1st playtrough on Tomb Raider difficult after 1st bear encounter xD
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By SaberFusion1 on 03 Jan 2017 15:03
Great guide, really straightforward. One thing I'm unsure of is this a permadeath difficulty level? Or do you have to restart each time you die?
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By LaidbackPixie on 07 Feb 2017 00:24
@LaidbackPixie No, it's not true Permadeath. All it does is remove auto-checkpointing (for collectibles story progress, and location). You can still save your progress at Campfires. I've heard it compared to Dark Souls (except you don't lose any items when you die).
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By DarkWingSpartan on 07 Feb 2017 02:05
Great guide, really straightforward. One thing I'm unsure of is this a permadeath difficulty level? Or do you have to restart each time you die?
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By LaidbackPixie on 07 Feb 2017 09:56
One question about the final part of the game. If I die at the helicopter fight or at the Constantin fight, where I will spawn?
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By O Palestrino on 09 Feb 2017 07:48
@O Palestrino Back at the campfire that says "point of no return." You'll have to re-do some climbing to get back to the fight, but nothing too difficult.
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By DarkWingSpartan on 09 Feb 2017 12:56
My Blood Tues achievements won't unlock on my current file. If I was to delete my data, is this difficulty an option from the start? Anyone know?
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By Anxsighety on 10 Feb 2017 05:40
Yes, you could do this right away if you wanted to.
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By DarkWingSpartan on 10 Feb 2017 13:49
On many occasions I would go Over 2 hours without a checkpoint or a campfire, this is ridiculous, I'm already regretting it. Thanks for the tips though.
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By CRT JEDIMARK on 15 Mar 2017 05:36
Excellent solution, many thx. One thing to add which helped me was I did play through on Tombraider first then went after Gold Score Attack on each level which generally meant full play through without dying to get a gold score on Survivor difficulty. After completing that, I tried Extreme Survivor and moved pretty easily thru it with the bad jump deaths here and there. The survivor and extreme survivor achievements stack.
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By Fischs3 on 27 Mar 2017 17:32
Do I have to play the other difficulties to unlock the last difficulty ?
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By on 29 May 2017 14:39
@NapalmNiko Nope.
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By DarkWingSpartan on 29 May 2017 15:12
So I played through the entire game a second time on this difficulty for this achievement alone since I had everything else done on my survivor playthrough, which is annoying to begin with. But then it got even better when I beat it and the achievement didn't fucking unlock. And apparently I'm the only person that had this bullshit happen to them because I've found nothing said by anyone else about this happening. This always fucking happens to me. I'm not sure I have the patience to play the damn game again. It was good and all but this is fucking stupid.
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By ThePaleHorseman on 05 Nov 2017 07:27
may be a lag, I am going to go for this mode. As soon as I am finished with Score Attack
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By Desi Shinobi on 14 Nov 2017 14:51
When you get to the part where you have to bring down a statue with 2 more Greek Fire barrels... (Flooded Archives area) DO NOT PRESS 'X' NEAR THE CAMP FIRE AFTER SETTING OFF THE LAST BARREL!!! I found out the hard way it breaks your game... cry
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By HappyTheDevil on 30 Nov 2017 10:23
I ended up in extreme survival twice and did not unlock the achievement. I do not know what I can do anymore.
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By Felmarts on 03 Mar 2018 02:37
Is this for the main game?
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By J ROLLER 1979 on 18 Mar 2018 15:44
Do you have to beat the game to get this difficulty? I have the season pass installed but when I go to start up the game extreme survivor is not available.
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By HawkeyeBarry20 on 10 Jul 2018 03:34
I just finished the story on extreme survivor, does anyone know why that could be? I got a few collectibles left over, do I need to get those? and do I need to do Baba Yaga too? Any advice is appreciated!

EDIT: It popped now, I restarted the game and both survivors achievements popped clap
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By OldNerdyGuy on 04 Aug 2018 05:57
Just finished this. It was a real slog going through the whole game a second time but it got easier as I got further. The only truly hard part I found was in Syria since there is no base camp and at the final boss fight. Please don’t make the same mistake I did and bash Y as soon as you dodge Konstantin. You can bash B but wait until Y is in the circle. That one mistake caused me to have to replay the boss fight three more times.
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By MassiveAssault5 on 05 Oct 2018 22:48
Telling people NOT to play it on their first playthrough is terrible advice OP.

I just 100% on Extreme Survivor in one go and it was quite easy. The enemies in this game are fairly harmless so I think about 95% of my deaths were from Lara's occasional inability to grab ledges.
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By Lockie on 07 Jul 2019 06:58
I didn't know they're was a achievement for playing on extreme... Too bad am already 10 plus hours into the game. This game is not hard. I played 1 other tomb raider game, an that was about 4 ish years back I believe. Believe I had 1 death by enemies (believe it was my fault) an the rest was by missing a button, or jumping to soon/late. (Am on ultimate)
I recommend playing this on first playthrough
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By tjw CENA2000 on 24 Jan 2020 05:44
Very good guide, thank you. Not a hard achievement tbf. I did die a good bit but the fact that there are several camps is good. I died during the QTE in the Kostantine fight for pressing Y too early lol. The helicopter fight wasnt too bad but man I didn't enjoy retrying it again after messing up the final press of the game
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By YaIrishMick96 on 24 Jan 2020 22:11
Can you start Ultimate Survivor as a second run through with all of your skills and upgrades from your first run through?
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By RagingRider on 10 Aug 2020 04:44
Doubt: If I start playing on extreme survivor, will I unlock the achievement related to beating it on survivor?
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By RashekTLR on 05 Jan 2021 01:01
@vinicius. Look at the achievement flag. Yes this is stackable.
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By Dr Marty on 05 Jan 2021 03:50
Is this even available anymore? I don't even have the option of extreme survivor when I try to pick a new game? Am I just missing something or did it go away?
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By Steagles209 on 05 Jul 2021 11:45
@Steagles, do you have the DLC installed?
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By Dr Marty on 05 Jul 2021 13:29
Can i unlock the Ultimate survivor achievement in the extrem survivor run? Two in one ?
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By RoXx iBerserker on 08 Nov 2021 00:39
Other than a couple of annoying bits due to stretches of no bonfires, it really isn't that bad, especially if you're familiar with Tomb Raider 2013 and how it controls, and ESPECIALLY if you're following the guide. The hardest parts of the game only took me 2 or 3 extra tries. I thought I'd have an awful time in the final few areas and there's campfires in all the right places.

Make Extreme your first playthrough, it's really not that hard and IMO was how the game was meant to be played.
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By segagamer on 07 Jun 2022 22:23
I got this some days ago and beat it 100% on this difficulty the hardest parts I found were the catupults where you have to break the gate to get to the end of the game and the first part with the bear can be pretty hard but you can easily take the bear down with poison arrows but other than that try to be as stealthily as possible and only fight if you need to and ammo and arrows aren't too hard to find and in my opinion shadow of the tomb raider is much harder than this one
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By TACOSUAR65 on 31 Jul 2022 18:00
Just going to echo some of the other comments as well. This is still pretty simple to do as a first playthrough. 90 to 95 percent of my deaths were from falling, not combat.
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By EarthboundX on 16 Sep 2022 10:26
zz just completed this and it did not unlock. anyone else have this issue? Going to see if I can create a ticket or something..
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By Poat540 on 14 Nov 2022 22:08
completed it again on different Xbox from start to finish and didn't pop... this time I have the 'backup save' - going to try again. Only thing was I clicked "B" during the credits? lol
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By Poat540 on 11 Apr 2023 21:31
ok - deleted both local and cloud saves and did a third time and everything popped - yay!
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By Poat540 on 16 May 2023 03:23
Super bugged achievement as you can see it took the guy above me 3 full playthroughs for this not to glitch out. Not worth the time investment. Pissed is screwed me
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By OozyBabySkin on 12 Jul 2023 03:03
This is an A+ guide. It is easy to navigate and is as complete as I can think of.

The only thing that is wrong is that this achievement stacks with the Ultimate Survivor achievement from the base game (though I absolutely agree that this is still better reserved for a 2nd playthrough).
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By Lazyslothboy001 on 29 Nov 2016 17:35
I finished this game on my first run on this difficulty, so I didn't have any experience with the level-design etc. From my personal experience "Extreme Survivor" is only hard in the beginning, when you don't have many upgrades. The last really tough part for me was at some place in the soviet station, where you go through a gate in a fence and have to fight a lot of bad guys. There is a campfire directly before this, so restarting is not that bad. After that the game really became easier for me. I think I had about 30 deaths in the whole game and a lot of them were related to bad jumps. In most of those jumps I didn't see that I need the axe-thing to get a grip in a wall.
Long story short: If you are new to the game and don't want to get through it two times don't hesitate to start on "Extreme Survivor". By doing so I managed to get through the whole game and all DLCs in 65 hours without rushing it, even 60 hours are possible in my opinion.
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By Jimbo LaFleur on 17 Oct 2017 13:57
If I had followed your advice about doing survivor first and then try extreme survivor, I would be angry as hell at you.

People planning on getting this achievement should play this difficulty even on your first playthrough, it will save you more than 10+ hours. It is not hard at all and I ended up collecting lots of collectibles as well to gain XP, doing challenge tombs for bonuses etc.

Furthermore, I had an abundance of every supply. You need to unlock NATURALIST and SURVIVALIST skills ASAP, as they grant you more supplies when you loot. Triple shot with true shot is a must, since you can execute 3 headshots at the same time. I was breezing through enemies.

I was wearing an outfit that granted me a chance of getting exotic resources from animals. That way I was able to upgrade my things way faster. By the point I got to Geothermal Valley, I used only 4 (yes, FOUR) manual heals.

Your health regenerates at campfire and when you skin an animal, so I was saving my healing items this way as well.
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By Darth Hawk CZ on 13 Jan 2019 09:04
Like previous commenters said, I'd also advice you to ignore OP's advice on not doing extreme survivor for your first playthrough. If you want to start this game and you want this achievement, please start on extreme survivor. It's not hard and it only makes the game more exciting. You won't regret it. But you will regret playing through survivor first and, realising how easy this game is, wonder why in hell you didn't start on extreme survivor. OP should really edit his post and remove this terrible advice.
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By I The Wise on 18 Dec 2020 09:48
attempting this now. Was doing survivor mode. Decided to just go for extreme survivor instead. Going slow in it
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By A Dark Daddy on 28 Apr 2022 20:25
@Carlinhoscwbr3

Yep thats a totally doable way of playing the game. My first run through was on tomb raider and I don't think I particularly struggled at any part of Extreme Survivor until the final boss. Most of my deaths were either me being stupid cocky or screwing up jumps.

I don't think it is critical that you do the 1st playthrough on survivor if you don't want to. It's more critical to just see all the encounters and setpieces so you are never blindsighted when you least expect it without generous checkpoints.
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By Lazyslothboy001 on 03 Dec 2016 05:56
Thank you for the guide, but I'm going to disagree with you about not starting on this difficulty. If you're a generally experienced gamer who is used to trying out hard modes, this is not a difficult game even on survivor. In fact, almost none of my deaths were in combat even when I made a huge mistake, because healing is extremely plentiful and you can spam heal your way through even the most careless gameplay. With some 40+ campfires to save at through the game, it's not like saves are even in short supply. The longest you go without a save is the very beginning of the game.

Also: for those reading people having some issues unlocking it, I just unlocked it no problem, for whatever that's worth, so it hasn't become unobtainable or anything. Not sure what the issue is. I did occasionally have some weird bugs where I quit the game and reloaded to clear it up. I quit and reloaded before the final battle, too. Maybe that's something to try.
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By TheBigBB on 02 Oct 2018 08:18
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