Rise of the Tomb Raider
143 Achievements
2,250
62-78h
Skillful Raider
Endurance Challenge: Open 5 Codices or Sarcophagi without getting caught in a trap
20
0.05%
How to unlock the Skillful Raider achievement in Rise of the Tomb Raider - Definitive Guide
There are two types of traps. There are collapsing floor traps, and pressure plate traps. You can shoot both types of traps. Take an infinite arrow card on your run to make things easier. Be sure to scan the floor every 5 feet and shoot the switch with the poison arrow since you are not wasting anything.
Do be careful of your return trip out of the crypts. They often spawn new traps on your way out. Watch your step going back and you should be safe.
The achievement pops when you open the 5th codec/sarcophagus.
I feel like finding the crypts in the first place is the hard part.
As you can see, I have three codecs (medium artifacts) and two sarcophagi (large artifacts), with only 4 crypts discovered (and had to skip one because it had a spike pit trap). The screencap is in spanish, sorry, but you can check the numbers on lines 2, 3 and 4 of the stats..
Also, I believe that after last patch (Jan 26, 2016) the achievement has been made simpler, and the dreaded floor spike traps are less frequent. I'm not sure about this, but is my perception, having played before and after the patch.
So, here are a few main rules for this achievement:
- Obviously, select the "Skillful raider" challenge before starting the endurance run.
- "Well read" or "Tomb Raider" cards are almost fundamental, as they give you the ability of showing traps in red when you use your survival sense. Use one of those two cards. Cards like "Toxicity" / "Boomtown" for infinite arrows, any master outfit for all skills, "Small game hunter" or "Bloodlust" to help with hunger, or "Hot Blooded" to help with cold could make your life easier. My setup was: "Sacra Umbra Master Outfit" + "Small Game Hunter" + "Well read" + "Hot blooded" + "Toxicity".
- As the other guide says, avoid the crypts with spike pit floor traps. These can mess your achievement in a second, as some of those can't be avoided without triggering them, and some others will trigger even if you don't touch them. Also, shooting them voids the achievement. So, if you spot one of these, turn back and look for another crypt.
- You can shoot the pressure plate traps from a distance to avoid them easily.
- Don't get too confident after reaching the treasure, and keep looking for traps on your way out, because some of those could respawn.
- Once you have found and looted an easy crypt, run away from it in a straight line until the crypt marker disappears from your survival view. Try to have always on your mind the direction where the crypt is located. After the marker dissapears, go back. The marker will show again, and when you reach the crypt, the treasure will be lootable again. Be careful, because some traps will respawn, and new ones could appear in different places.
- If you go back and treasure hasn't respawned, go away again and wait a day or night before going back to the crypt.
- If you find a new crypt while running away from the previous one, check it, but make sure you know where the prior one is located from the entrance of the new crypt, so you can go back later. And remember, spike pit means turning back.
- Be careful: from day 5 onward, some enemies could spawn inside the crypts.
If you follow these rules, the achievement should pop easily. I did it first try, unlocking it during day 5.
1st crypt
2nd crypt
I walled away
Again 1st crypt
2nd crypt
Walked away
1st crypt.
Last time I didnt find even 1 trap other four times I found many.
So firstly, make sure you enable the 'Skillful Raider' challenge before starting your endurance run. Secondly, I found the ideal card setup for endurance to be as follows:
• Any master outfit variant (so all skills are unlocked)
• Any master bow
• Bloodlust / Hot Blooded (for warmth and food regeneration, personal preference)
• Toxicity (unlimited poison arrows, makes you pretty much unstoppable)
• Well Read (gives all extra skills, namely one that makes all traps highlighted red while using survival instinct)
So, just walk around (making sure to keep warmth and food levels high at all times) and find 5 individual crypts. Use survival instinct at every chance possible to highlight all traps in red. Shoot the floor spike traps, and jump over the ankle and pressure pad traps. Find your way to the large artifact at the end and repeat until you have looted the contents of all five crypts, unlocking the achievement!
As I said, the knowledge of being able to shoot the floor traps made this ten times easier (and faster also). Hope this helps.
If you do not have the same experience I had with this crypt layout, please let me know in comments.
*****Edit*****
I've been told that there might have been a patch recently that does not recent the crypt by going far away enough from it after leaving. You should be able to recent any crypt by walking away from it outside, and once it doesn't appear as a waypoint on Survival Instincts, turn back around and go inside, the treasure "unopened." The crypt should remain at the same physical location each new run, but that might not be the case anymore. Keep me updated if resetting the crypt no longer works, and I'll make appropriate adjustments in the guide.
The easiest way to get it, is using a card that grant you all codecs upgrades, this way you see the traps as red when using survival instinct, but you can still do it without these cards.
All you have to do is hit the traps before going trough the crypt.
Even Collapsing Floors, the most annoying traps, can be hit by arrows and that don't ruin the achievement.
I done it this way. I tried using the other guides and evading crypts that had bad layouts, but it took forever to find perfect crypts, then I started hitting collapsing floors and going trough all crypts very attentive and got it in about 20 minutes.
Keywords are attention and patience.
When you're in a crypt, always look down at the floor and avoid sprinting in areas you haven't been. Be especially careful when climbing up a ledge, as some traps are placed against the edge.
There are essentially two things to look out for: leg traps and collapsible floors.
Leg traps are simple to avoid by shooting them from a distance with an arrow, which will disable them.
The floors are a bit trickier and require careful jumping, usually from a sprint. If they collapse at all, even if you don't fall, the challenge will fail. And it can be extremely risky jumping them. Therefore, the safest way to do the challenge is to turn around and leave if you see one of these. Some layouts don't include this particular trap, and bailing instead of trying to jump them remove the biggest risk.
Note that, if you're having trouble finding five unique crypts with no floor traps, codices and sarcophagi can respawn if you run far enough away.
Challenges: Skillful Raider, Who Needs a Map?
Recommended Cards: Tomb Raider or whatever other outfit that gives you the Bright Eyes skill such as Sacra Umbra, Hope's Bastion, Immortal Guardian etc. Toxicity is also useful to kill animals for food when you need it.
This will probably take around 30 minutes depending on your luck in finding Crypts. Codices and Sarcophagi are found at the end of a Crypt and you can only find one of them in each Crypt. In total you will have to find 5 Crypts to complete the challenge and unlock the trophy.
Make sure to also have max or close to hunger and warmth when you enter a Crypt in case it takes you a while to get the artifact and escape; you don't want to starve to death in there.
Take your time going through each Crypt, use Survival Instincts with the Bright Eyes skill to highlight any traps and trigger them from a distance by shooting the pressure plates, your cross-hair will turn red when you are aiming at a trap. You can shoot the rubble above a pitfall to trigger it and simply jump over them to avoid voiding the challenge/trophy.
When leaving the Crypt make sure that you don't fall in to any pits you have may triggered earlier, take it slow and you will be fine.
Challenges to Select:
- Raider
- Skillful Raider
Recommended Cards to use:
- Tomb Raider: Grants all Brawler, Hunter, Survivor and Codex Skills
or - Well Read: Grants all Codex Skills
Having the Codex Skill "Bright Eyes" is helpful in seeing traps in crypts when you use survival instincts.
You probably will have to find more then 5 Crypts in order to complete this challenge; reason is because of floor traps, they seem to always trigger and making you fail the challenge no matter how far you jump over it. If you see one in a Crypt I would turn around and find another Crypt to raid. Some Crypt Entrances has a floor trap, so be careful when going into one.
The achievement will unlock once you open the 5th Codices or Sarcophagi without setting off any trap in Crypts.
Challenges to Select:
- Skillful Raider
Recommended Cards to use:
- Tomb Raider: Grants all Brawler, Hunter, Survivor and Codex Skills
or - Well Read: Grants all Codex Skills
Having the Codex Skill "Bright Eyes" is helpful in seeing traps in crypts when you use survival instincts.
You probably will have to find more then five Crypts in order to complete this challenge; reason is because of floor traps, they seem to always trigger and making you fail the challenge no matter how far you jump over it. If you see one in a Crypt, I would turn around and find another Crypt to raid. Some Crypt Entrances have a floor trap, so be careful when going into one.
The achievement will unlock once you open the fith Codex or Sarcophagus without setting off any trap in Crypts.
Now regarding the cards:
- Choose a suit with fully upgraded skills.
- Fully upgraded bow
- Killing small animals gives you more food
- Fire damage and explosions heat up faster
- All skills of the codex
In this situation, you just need to run constantly in search of the crypt
Small animals can always be found along the road, and if they are frozen, then we shoot a fiery arrow at our feet and look at the heat indicator and screen status (wait a little while the indicator is restored and immediately run away, otherwise death)
You don’t need to upgrade your skills or bow either, the only thing you need to do is collect wood and oil, but all this is found along the way. It’s better to upgrade your backpack, you won’t need the rest of the weapons.
In the crypt we actively use the survival instinct, this will help illuminate the path and see traps.
1) Endless poisoned arrows - kills almost all enemies with one hit (bears and pumas need more).
2) Endless fire arrows - we shoot at your feet and warm up, but we lose health
3) Any suit with all level 3 skills.
4) A map for all skills from the codex - traps are highlighted more clearly, it’s easy to spot them.
It is also advisable to set the “discover 5 crypts” test; with each new crypt, a message about its discovery will pop up.
We start endurance (any difficulty will do) and start running in any direction, the main thing is to where there are no points of interest such as a camp, ruins, etc.
Sooner or later we will find the crypt, begin to carefully descend and constantly use our survival instinct. There is only one task - you can’t fall into the trap yourself, you can activate them from afar! You need to go through the entire crypt, open the sarcophagus or codex and go back out.
I found three types of traps:
1) A slab that activates ceiling spikes - we shoot from afar at the slab (you can use any arrows from a bow). The trap has been deactivated and will no longer interfere.
2) A trap on the floor - we just jump over it with a running start, it’s not difficult.
3) The floor with spikes is clearly visible, we shoot from afar, the floor collapses. We just jump over or go around the wall.
On the way back you also need to be careful and it is best to go the same way you came.
You need to go through 5 crypts in one outing. One mistake and you'll have to start over.