Siberian Wilderness - Finding Shelter and Making Your First Upgrades

From the start of the level, follow the path downhill through the deep snow to discover the Wilderness Refuge Base Camp. (The route is pretty obvious but you can always use Survival Instinct and/or check the in-game map if necessary.) There is no warm fire waiting for you, so you'll need to scrounge up some supplies in order to survive the night.

You'll need to collect 3 resources: hardwood (x2) and animal hide. Continue down the path to the southeast and you will soon find all three. Again, press in on the right stick to activate Survival Instinct if the pickups are not immediately obvious.

Approach each of the 2 scrawny saplings and press Interact to strip their branches.

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Then do the same with the deer carcass to skin it.

When you do this, you'll see a notification at the top right corner of the screen as hardwood, then deer hide and antlers, are added to your inventory. You'll also receive XP as you complete each part of this sequence. Return to the Base Camp to trigger a cutscene.

You'll notice Lara no longer has the pistol she brought to Syria, but during the cutscene, she assembles a MAKESHIFT LONGBOW from items she's found.

Afterward you'll receive a notification that upgrades for this weapon are available. To apply weapon upgrades, select WEAPONS from the base camp interface.

Then select the Bow category at the top left. Select the Makeshift Longbow below.

Now peruse the different upgrades available. The one highlighted in white is available now. Here we are looking at the Reinforced Limbs upgrade. The table on the right shows how many of each resource this upgrade requires as well as how many of each resource you now have. Follow the on-screen prompt to apply the Reinforced Limbs upgrade to your bow.

NOTE: The upgrades shown in red are not available yet, either because they are locked at your current level (lock icon) or because you don't have the necessary resources to craft them.

Upgrading your bow also gives you XP. You should now have a full Skill Point to can spend. Select SKILLS from the base camp menu. (The Base Camp menu also includes options for INVENTORY and FAST TRAVEL. These will be covered a bit later on.)

There are 3 skill categories from which to select a possible upgrade: Brawler, Hunter, and Survivor. Go ahead and explore each category to get a feel for the different upgrades. If you've played Tomb Raider (2013), many of these will be familiar to you; however, you'll notice there are many more upgrades in this game.

Veteran raiders probably won't be reading a walkthrough for this level anyway, but if you're just starting out or are not yet confident in your own choices, I will make suggestions for the early upgrades. I highly recommend choosing the Survivor skill Avid Learner as your first upgrade, since this will give you additional XP enabling you to unlock new skills even faster.

If you've been collecting all the documents, relics, etc., you'll probably earn a second Skill Point now. If not, it will happen soon. press Interact to re-enter the Base Camp menu.

I'd suggest taking one of the Hunter skills—either Breath Control or Animal Instincts—since you'll be using your bow almost exclusively for a while, and being able to spot prey will be helpful in these early stages.