SAVING, CHECKPOINTS & TECH SUPPORT: This game incorporates autosave checkpoints. If you only rely on one save slot, you may run into trouble if you get stuck, encounter a bug, or if your autosave becomes corrupted. To avoid problems, I highly recommend changing your save slot in the pause menu at least once per level. If you encounter a serious bug, I encourage you to visit the Official Shadow of the Tomb Raider Support Forum and or put in a support request with Square Enix. PC save files are available for download here.
AREA 3: CROFT MANOR (dream/flashback)
Updated: 9/18/18(†)
Challenges: 1 Relics: 2 Documents: 3
NOTE: You cannot revisit this area after completing it (unless you replay the game), but the collectibles and challenges here are not required for 100% completion.
OBJECTIVE: Enter the Castle
GARDEN & PLAYGROUND: Young Lara is on a mission, but even now you can take some time to explore and uncover a few secrets. The Hand-Drawn Map from the cutscene is now included in the Artifacts section of your inventory, as part of the Mystery of the White Queen Story. All of the collectibles from this level will be included there. Turn around from the starting position to spot a relic (1/2), White Queen, in a box under a tree. (screenshot) There's also a document (1/3), Letter to Winston, under the archway supporting the ramp at one end of the play structure. (screenshot)
While you're in this area, let's take on the level's only Challenge: pick up the medicine ball lying on the grass near the 3 bullseye targets. Hold the Right Mouse or Left Trigger button and you'll see a white arc showing where the ball is aimed. Adjust with the mouse or right stick to aim at any of the bullseyes. Then press Left Mouse or Right Trigger to throw the ball. Hitting the first target starts the Bullseye Challenge. Retrieve the ball and throw it at the other nearby targets. That's 3/4. The 4th bullseye is in the corner of the garden where you found the relic, hanging from the tree above the hammock. Toss the ball at it the same way to complete the challenge and earn an XP reward. (screenshots)
To get the next relic, grab the medicine ball you used for the challenge and carry it up the ramp to the upper level of the wooden play structure. At the far end is a section that looks like the crow's nest of a ship. Toss the ball up there. The added weight causes the crow's nest to sink partway. Pick up a second ball, which is lying nearby, and toss it onto the platform as well. This should cause it to sink all the way so you can reach the box with the relic (2/2), a Family Photo. If the ball gets stuck and the platform doesn't sink (this happened to me), there's another medicine ball down on the ground, near the rock in the middle of the wooden climbing structure, another ball near the green slide, and another ball near the corner of the climbing structure with the chalkboard drawing of the White Queen. Grab any of them and try again. (screenshots)
The next document (2/3), Letter from Winston, is lying on the grass near the part of the wooden pergola closest to the green slide. Look for the red wagon and the document is just to the left. (screenshot)
CLIMBING INTO THE 'CASTLE': No corner bugs for young Lara. She gets up to the roof the old-fashioned way! Climb the lattice just to the right of the red wagon to get on top of the pergola. Climb up once more to reach the balcony outside Richard Croft's study. Then sneak along below his window. (screenshots)
OBJECTIVE: Climb the Castle
Climb the wall at the end of the balcony. Then continue climbing around the corner to the right across the wooden shutters, and upward again until you can grab onto a horizontal pipe. Climb along the pipe, around the next corner, then upward again. Now keep climbing up and over to the right until you reach the carved stone "C" near the top of the tower. Climb up it to reach the metal gutter and pull up onto the narrow ledge above. Sidestep to the right, around the next corner, and on toward the next corner. When Lara reaches the electrical box, the gutter she's standing on collapses, but she manages to hang onto a pipe and scramble up to grab a handhold. Continue climbing to the right, upward a little, then right again, until you can pull up into the opening with the flapping red flag. Squeeze through the narrow gap and climb the ladder onto the conservatory roof. (screenshots)
OBJECTIVE: Find a Way Into the Forbidden Tomb
Walk along the ridge cap and onto the vent. Here Lara spots a way in but before she can reach it, she slips and tumbles off the roof, catching various handholds as she goes, and and eventually ending up on a balcony with an open door. Go inside and enter the room just ahead. (screenshots)
OBJECTIVE: Find the White Queen
WHITE QUEEN PUZZLE: As you enter the "Forbidden Tomb," you receive a new objective and Lara's drawing, Enigmatic Clues, is automatically added to the Artifacts section of your inventory. (screenshot) Lara reads, "By night the Great Bat stole the Queen at thirty North and ninety East. From her pen she wrote her heart. With light, unlock her love's release."
NOTE: Kelly from Tomb Raider Horizons (formerly Tomb Raider Horizons) pointed out that these coordinates lie roughly 100 km west-northwest of Lhasa, Tibet. So perhaps this is where Lara's mother, Amelia, died.
There are lots of artifacts on display in this room. Examine them at your leisure. Then approach the huge globe and use the wheel on the right to rotate the globe in order to match the latitude in the clue: 30° North Then use the left wheel to set the longitude to 90° East The solarium shades close, a beam of light shines down, reflects off the globe, and illuminates a crest high on the wall, causing a ladder to descend from the upper level. Climb the ladder and look to the left to spot a document (3/3), Letter to Contractor, sitting on a table near the T. rex skeleton. This completes the Mystery of the White Queen Story, which you can review in the Artifacts menu. (screenshots)
Move around to the far end of the mezzanine, examining the various artifacts as you go. Turn the wheel here to spread batlike glider's wings. Two beams of red light now shine down onto the game board below. Use the shorter ladder to the right of the wheel to descend to the lower level. Now you'll need to maneuver the pieces on the game board so the red beams shine on the 2 shielded knights. (screenshots)
There's no one correct solution, but here's one way. To get oriented, start by grabbing the knight on the right (nearer the entrance) and pushing it forward into the red beam to the right of the ladder. Lara comments that the knight's shield reflects the light. Now move the pawns out of the way so you can maneuver the second knight. Again, there's no one right way to do this. One solution is to start with the pawn on the far left (nearest the globe) and push it forward into the corner. Then drag the pawn nearest the illuminated one around toward the first pawn you moved. (Every piece does not need to end up on a circle in order to solve the puzzle.) Pull the illuminated pawn away from the ladder then maneuver it in line with the two you just moved. Push the pawn sitting in front of the knight once toward the entrance, in order to clear the track between the second knight and the light beam. (The pawn in the corner next to the knight can stay where it is.) Now you can move the second knight along the zig-zagging track into the light. When both knights are positioned correctly, the light beams activate a mechanism, revealing the White Queen, trapped behind the ladder. (screenshots)
OBJECTIVE: Free the White Queen
Return to the globe and turn either wheel. This shuts off the first beam of light and raises the ladder so you can reach the queen. Grab the queen and drag her onto the circle where the light beams converge. This opens a secret door behind the ladder. (screenshots)
OBJECTIVE: Cross the Unknown Threshold
Go through the doorway into Amelia's atelier.
Entering the room triggers a cutscene in which Lara examines some of her mother's things and remembers old times, both happy and sad. When the flasback-within-a-flashback ends, young Lara goes looking for her father, only to discover a terrifying scene, which will be all too familiar to anyone who played Rise of the Tomb Raider. Grown-up Lara then awakes from the nightmare back at the campsite in Peru.
†UPDATE HISTORY: 9/18/18 - First draft of walkthrough posted online.
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