Tomb Raider

1. Master tank controls in the first room. Draw pistols with R1 (infinite ammo), sidestep with L2/R2, tap X to jump, hold X mid-air to grab ledges. Lara cannot turn and move forward at the same time — release forward, rotate with L1/R1, then move. This is not a suggestion; the game will not let you play it any other way.

2. Save crystals are finite — treat them like boss keys. Blue save crystals do not respawn and levels distribute them unevenly. The Caves tutorial has one near the exit; burn it only after you’ve practiced movement and cleared the bats and wolves. Reserve crystals for pre-boss checkpoints and before long platforming gauntlets.

3. Walk to every edge. Hold Walk (R2 default) when approaching drops. Lara auto-stops at the precipice. Running off edges kills more players in the first hour than every enemy combined, and there is no fall-damage mercy window.

4. Grab every medpack and ammo box you see. Pistols never run dry but deal scratch damage. Shotgun shells, Uzi clips, and magnum rounds are scarce and never respawn. The Caves hides shells behind a breakable wall — shoot the textured panel left of the bear.

5. Learn the roll now. Press forward + back simultaneously for a 180° snap-turn when enemies close from behind. The input is stiff; drill it in the Caves before the Peru wolf ambush.

6. Look up constantly. Tomb Raider is a climbing game wearing a shooting game’s jacket. Press L2+R2 together to tilt the camera skyward and spot high ledges. Most progression blocks resolve when you find the climbable surface you walked past three times.

7. PS1 has no quicksave — budget 2–3 crystals per level minimum. Death reloads from the last crystal. Every medpack collected, every switch pulled, every enemy killed since that crystal is gone.

• Save medpacks for combat, not fall damage. The grid-based movement means you can measure every jump in advance—if you’re burning health on platforming mistakes, you’re not learning the geometry. Walk to ledges, look down, and commit the safe-drop height (roughly one body-length) to muscle memory.

• Sideflip repositions faster than backflip. Jump + left/right dodges Lara laterally while keeping her facing forward—critical against wolves and raptors that close distance fast. Backflip locks her into a backwards arc that often puts her against walls.

• Enemies have fixed spawn triggers, usually doorway thresholds or item pickups. When the enemy-nearby musical sting plays, stop moving and draw pistols before crossing the trigger line. Infinite-ammo pistols stunlock most animals; save Uzi/shotgun rounds for the T-Rex, centaurs, and Atlantean creatures with high interrupt resistance.

• Manual jump beats running jump for precision gaps. Standing jump + forward gives exact control over distance; running jumps have a minimum travel arc that overshoots narrow platforms. Use running jumps for length, manual jumps for accuracy.

• Grab-cancel extends horizontal reach. Jump + forward, release forward mid-air, tap grab at apex—the grab command has a small magnetic pull toward ledges, letting you catch edges slightly beyond normal jump distance. Essential for several Peru/Greece shortcuts that look impossible.

• Underwater, surface tension kills faster than drowning. When the air meter is red, swim to a shallow ledge and climb out rather than surfacing in deep water—Lara’s surface-tread animation drains the last 20% of air in seconds. Always scout for exit points before diving.

• Quicksand/tar pits in Egypt have invisible safe-path tiles. They follow the same grid as floor geometry—if you fall in, the last solid tile you stood on marks the safe line. Reload and hug that boundary.

Peru – Lost Valley: The T-Rex arena. Sprint straight across the valley and the Rex spawns before you’ve mapped your exits. The dinosaur can’t fit through the narrow canyon on the west side—duck in, turn around, and empty pistols while it roars at the gap. Or climb the tiered ledges on the north wall; the Rex can’t follow, and you can drop behind it to reach the exit cave once it stops tracking you.

Greece – St. Francis’ Folly: The four-lever Thor room. The central pillar has four switches—Thor, Atlas, Damocles, Hephaestus—each opening a door to a vertical challenge shaft. Flip levers randomly and you’ll lose your place in the branching climbs. Flip all four first, opening every door at once, then clear each chamber top-to-bottom. Start with Thor (lightning-bolt door)—easiest climb, grab the key, reverse out. Use the pillar room as your hub; track which doors you’ve finished.

Egypt – Sanctuary of the Scion: The collapsing-floor Atlantean fight. Grab the third Scion piece and the floor crumbles in sequence while two mutants spawn. Panic-rolling into corners gets you pit-killed. Sprint immediately to the southeast corner where a climbable block gives you high ground—Atlanteans can’t reach you there. Wait for the floor to finish collapsing, drop to the lower level, fight on stable ground. Stay on crumbling tiles and you’re dead.

Egypt – The Great Pyramid: Sphinx platforming room. The Sphinx head requires a running jump from the paw to a high ledge with no visible landing marker. Players fall into the spike pit a dozen times. Stand at the edge of the paw, angle Lara toward 10 o’clock (not straight), step back once, running-jump with grab held. The ledge’s collision box extends past the visible texture—trust the grab input even when it looks like air.