Rise of the Tomb Raider
143 Achievements
2,250
62-78h
Ultimate Survivor
Finish the game on Survivor difficulty
40
0.72%
How to unlock the Ultimate Survivor achievement in Rise of the Tomb Raider - Definitive Guide
***There is a "work-around" to still use this solution. As of the 10th of Dec 2015, a patch was put in place to correct the glitch that allows this solution to work. If you have downloaded the latest update of the game, you will need to take a few extra steps to get the original solution to work. This is a method to exploit the bug in the original version of the game that let you pop this achievement by beating the game on a lower difficulty and then playing the last level of the game on Survivor. This worked 100% of the time before the patch, but if you follow this solution, please be aware that based off the rating of this solution, the success rate may be 75-90% now. (It could also be that I get some negative votes because some gamers may think it is unethical to pop an achievement without fulfilling all the requirements or can't follow instructions.)
Lets start with mentioning that you must have a physical copy of the disc to get this to work now. Simply put, once you beat the game on a lower difficulty, you can uninstall your game, go offline, re-install, and follow the original solution.
It is important that you keep your original save file intact. Making a copy of the save could be helpful. "AHuge RedDragon" helped by laying out the steps to keep your save file on Xbox One which can be more confusing then it was on the 360:
"Open games & apps --> Highlight Tomb Raider --> Menu button --> Manage game --> Select the main game tile --> Menu --> uninstall. DO NOT press uninstall all like you usually would when finished with a game"
One last thing to mention, the players that have confirmed that this method can still work have reported that since playing offline, you lose the ability to use cards to make things easier. (To be clear for the "work-around": If Chapter Elite will not work due to an error, any type of Chapter Select will also get you the achievement). Follow the original guide, go back online, download the update, and the achievement may not always pop right away. If it does not pop, it should show as complete. ***
Original Solution:
There is currently an easier way of grabbing this achievement, if you have completed the game on any other difficulty mode. This method definitely needs it's own solution.
-Go to Expeditions in the Main Menu
-Set Mode to: Chapter Replay Elite (This is like New Game+ where you keep all your skills and upgrades)
-Set Level to: Chamber of Souls
-Set Difficulty to: Survivor
All you need to do is beat the last section of the game, but on Survivor difficulty.
This mode also gives you the opportunity to use up to 5 unlocked cards to make the level easier. I highly recommend using unlimited poison arrows or unlimited explosion arrows if you have those cards unlocked. Even if you don't, load up all 5 card slots with ones that will make things easier for you like: big head enemies, a chance that an enemy explodes in a poison cloud on death, take less damage, see enemies through walls, etc.
I can confirm that this works. I used this method, and there are many other reports on this site and others that mention doing this.
After completion, the achievement will pop at the end of the cinematic. I am not sure if this will get patched at some point, so I would go for it as soon as you complete the story on an easier difficulty.
*If this solution helped you in some way, please vote positively. If you think it needs improvement, please let me know how in a private message or by leaving a comment.*
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTaOHX8kEkD7KxlqJDNmU...
Hope it helps.
Best tip I can give at this point is to focus on ammo recover when salvaging from bodies. There are perks in the skill trees that help out quite a bit. Another thing to focus on would be to stealth. I used stealth to my advantage quite often, there are many situations where stealth is put in the game, but even when it's not super obvious, it advantageous to use it when possible.
RECOVERY! I can not stress enough about recovery. There are many instances where you'll get shot twice and the game will make you essentially "one-shot". There is a perk that makes you recover faster, and I mean FASTER. It has saved my life many times, even when I'm being reckless and charging into battle like I shouldn't. If you have access to the Remnant outfit, use it. It going to be the strongest outfit as far as I know.
Nothing much else I can tell, but to take it slow and plan out everything. Charging in will get you killed and playing save is really the way to go. If there are any question, do ask and I'll try to get back to you and answer them as best as possible.
Thanks!
Happy Hunting!
Some tips:
XP and Skills
I found a different XP - Skills strategy is needed for Survivor mode. For adventurer, I almost didn't care about the Brawler tree. However, for survivor, this is a priority for progress, both for faster healing and faster killing.
Chaining headshots and stealth kills is important to advance fast with XP. The silencer for the rifle or pistol is a great advantage.
Tombs
I recommend these four tombs to upgrade your skills for better progress. The other five, you can save for later.
1. Ice Ship, Location: Glacial Cavern. Reward: Ancient Abilities. Quickly shoot up to two successive arrows without the delay of redrawing from the quiver.
2. Voice of God, Location: Soviet Installation. Reward: Inner Strength. If critical injuries are sustained in battle (indicated by the screen turning grey) health will be automatically restored. This instant regeneration of health will occur only one time per combat encounter and will refresh between encounters.
3. House of the Afflicted, Location: Geothermal Valley. Reward: Fast Healer. Bandage wounds more quickly when healing.
4. Chamber of Exorcism, Location: The Lost City. Reward: Greek Fire. Fire arrows and Molotov Cocktails do more damage, even through armour.
Useful for higher tier weapon upgrades, like to unlock higher damage of the Tactical Rifle, but I found the Bolt Action Rifle better for Survivor, so I didn't bother:
- The Pit of Judgement, Location: Geothermal Valley. Reward: Geologist. Gain the ability to mine Chromite Ore.
Weapons
- Most of the time, there was no time or chance to fire at enemies twice, or to aim precisely. The Bolt Action Rifle, the Compound Bow , and the Revolver could take enemies down for the first try, also with a less correct aiming. As they already do high damage, I found it was good to spend resources in upgrading rate of fire and reload speed of these heavy damage weapons. I would upgrade the rifle in this order: Rifle Suppressor (Gulag Recon mission in Soviet Installation), Grenade launcher, Laser Sight. The Grenade Launcher is mainly useful to gain time in battle, as often there is no time to switch to the bow and back to fire an explosive or poison arrow.
- Also, while poison arrows were more for fun in Adventurer mode, in Survivor mode, I found I must use them strategically to take down 3-4 enemies in a group. Taking them down one by one, as I did in Adventurer mode, was simply not possible anymore. An often effective strategy is to alert unaware enemies with a pistol shot first, run away, wait for them to come in a group, and turn back and take all of them out with one or two poison arrows. Alternatively, the grenade and explosive arrows can take out a close group at one shot if you run out of poison arrows.
- For double and triple shot with the arrow (after earning the skills):
1. press and hold L2 to activate the bow,
2. press R3 to zoom in, press R2 and target the head and keep it pressed until the rectangle appears, then
3. still keep R2 pressed and use R3 to target the second or third head, and finally
4. release R2 to shoot.
The double/triple shot also works when hunting, and aiming at the heart of the deer and pigs in group.
- You will need to hunt bears to upgrade ammo capacity. The easiest way to hunt a bear is alternating a poison arrow and a fully loaded Compound Bow shot. With a fully charged compound bow 3-4 shots are enough, the other bows need 9-10 shots. Simply alternate between two bear locations with fast travel to hunt enough bears quickly.
Outfits
I found these three outfits helped a lot, to change strategically at campfire before hunting or a battle scene:
Sparrowhawk - BONUS: Non-predatory animals scare less easily, making them easier prey. Great for hunting faster, however needs to be swapped before a battle begins.
Siberian Ranger - BONUS: Increased carrying capacity for all special ammunition. Great for battle in general (except against deathless warriors), as more poison arrows can be carried, which is effective against any type of enemy.
Immortal Guardian - BONUS: Reduces damage from Greek fire. Great for fighting the deathless warriors who shoot fire arrows with Greek fire.
I used less, but also good for battle:
Pioneer - BONUS: Increased melee damage.
Wraithskin - BONUS: Increases the duration of your poison arrow cloud.
Trophy guides for inspiration
Some of the trophy guides have solutions for progressing when enemies are in group, or difficult to take down. I found these useful:
- Laying Down the Law (Kill 6 enemies with the Revolver without reloading)
- Chemical Warfare (Kill 5 enemies with one Poison Arrow)
- Firestarter (Defeat 2 enemies or more using a single Molotov Cocktail)
- Bar Brawl (Melee kill an enemy using a bottle)
- Fearless (Defeat a Deathless Swordsman using only melee attacks and a finisher)
The Last Scene
The only tricky scene in Survivor mode was the last battle, after the point of no return. I recommend to make a duplicate save slot before you start the last part, so in case you want to change weapons, you can go back. Also, pay attention to fully up your ammo of poison arrows, grenades, explosive arrows, shotgun ammo before starting this chapter. Otherwise, you are stuck with the weapon selection, ammo status and outfit you have started with. Also, I found useful for this chapter to master the skills that enable to take down the deathless warriors from above with the knife in stealth mode.
In the end, I didn't find Survivor mode "super" difficult and in fact, it was much more fun. So, if you haven't started yet, I would recommend to go ahead and play on survivor mode for the first time.
This achievement requires you to complete a full playthrough of the game on "Survivor" difficulty, which is the highest available in the game; after selecting Survivor difficulty, you'll be unable to change this. While there are a few challenging parts, overall survivor isn't too difficult if you have some experience with third-person shooting. A full list of differences between each difficulty level is as follows:
Adventurer:
- Aim assistance is enabled.
- Enemies have lower health and damage.
Tomb Raider:
- Aim assistance is disabled.
- Enemies have normal health and damage.
Seasoned Raider:
- Aim assistance is disabled.
- Heath regeneration only occurs outside of combat.
- Enemies have increased health, damage, and senses.
Survivor:
- Aim assistance is disabled.
- Health regeneration is disabled.
- Enemies have increased health, damage, and senses.
- More challenging enemy types will be present.
- Resources are more scarce, and upgrades are more expensive.
- Using a camp requires resources.
A few suggestions to help you towards completing your Survivor playthrough:
- Learn the "Avid Learner" and "Thick-Skinned" skills as early as possible - these will make further progression quicker and combat encounters much more survivable.
- Use cover! Lara can't take much damage on Survivor difficulty, so in encounters with multiple enemies make full use of any available cover to avoid gunfire.
- Whilst Lara's health won't regenerate, after the early parts of the game, you can afford to make fairly frequent use of manual healing as the required resources can be found very readily in most regions. You may also find it helpful to learn the skills that speed up healing.
- The "True Shot" skill in the Huntress tree will make the bow significantly easier to use successfully later in the game, as this will automatically target arrows at enemies' heads when zoomed in, for an instant kill on those without helmets.
Note that in unpatched versions of the game, it was possible to unlock this achievement by replaying only the game's last chapter on Survivor difficulty via Expeditions Mode, but this no longer works in an up-to-date version.
This achievement requires you to complete a full playthrough of the game on "Survivor" difficulty, which is the highest available in the game; after selecting Survivor difficulty, you'll be unable to change this. While there are a few challenging parts, overall Survivor isn't too difficult if you have some experience with third-person shooting. A full list of differences between each difficulty level is as follows:
Adventurer:
- Aim assistance is enabled
- Enemies have lower health and damage
Tomb Raider:
- Aim assistance is disabled
- Enemies have normal health and damage
Seasoned Raider:
- Aim assistance is disabled
- Heath regeneration only occurs outside of combat
- Enemies have increased health, damage, and senses
Survivor:
- Aim assistance is disabled
- Health regeneration is disabled
- Enemies have increased health, damage, and senses
- More challenging enemy types will be present
- Resources are more scarce, and upgrades are more expensive
- Using a camp requires resources
A few suggestions to help you towards completing your Survivor playthrough:
- Learn the "Avid Learner" and "Thick-Skinned" skills as early as possible - these will make further progression quicker and combat encounters much more survivable.
- Use cover! Lara can't take much damage on Survivor difficulty, so in encounters with multiple enemies make full use of any available cover to avoid gunfire.
- Whilst Lara's health won't regenerate, after the early parts of the game, you can afford to make fairly frequent use of manual healing as the required resources can be found very readily in most regions. You may also find it helpful to learn the skills that speed up healing.
- The "True Shot" skill in the Huntress tree will make the bow significantly easier to use successfully later in the game, as this will automatically target arrows at enemies' heads when zoomed in, for an instant kill on those without helmets.
Note that in unpatched versions of the game, it was possible to unlock this achievement by replaying only the game's last chapter on Survivor difficulty via Expeditions Mode, but this no longer works in an up-to-date version.
Survivor is the second highest difficulty in the game.
- Aim assistance is disabled
- Health regeneration is disabled (must craft med kits)
- Enemies have increased health, damage, and senses
- More challenging enemy types will be present
- Resources are more scarce, and upgrades are more expensive
- Using a camp requires resources
It may sound a bit daunting, but it's really not hard at all. The game is mostly exploration based and has few enemy encounters. The enemies in the early game don't have any armor and can be killed with 1 shot from the bow (which is silent and won’t reveal your location). Later the enemies get armor but you can easily take them out with poison arrows and explosive arrows. Poison arrows are the best because they affect a larger area and can kill an entire group of enemies at once. Keep in mind that you can craft arrows at any time without having to be at a campfire so you should always carry enough resources with you to make some special arrows. If you run out of resources you can fast travel to another area to farm them. Keep a fair amount of herbs & cloth with you at all times so you can craft med kits when needed.
Furthermore, there are several skills that make your life easier (e.g. "Thick-Skinned" and "Heart of Stone" which let you take significantly more damage). Some challenge tombs also provide useful bonuses – especially the one called "Voice of God" as it will automatically restore your health one time per enemy encounter. The only noteworthy encounters are at the end of the game within the last 60 minutes of the story. Everything else is surprisingly easy because you can stealth your way through it. The bow and silent melee kills let you clear out most areas without being detected.
At the end of the game you should wear the outfit called "Immortal Guardian" because it significantly decreases the damage you take from archers. For the rest of the game pick the outfit "Spirit Weaver", it will sometimes let you heal your wounds without consuming a med kit. You should also grab as many collectibles as you can because they provide good XP bonuses to level up more quickly. The skills from the Hunter and Brawler skill trees are the most useful ones.