Hidden Secrets You Might Have Missed In Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered

Summary

• Tomb Raider 4-6, remastered by Aspyr, includes golden skulls and roses as secrets, with a secret counter for tracking completion.
• The Last Revelation offers optional and challenging secrets like hidden rooms and dangerous obstacles for completionists.
• Chronicles features missed secrets like golden roses in tutorial areas and a wrecked U-Boat sections in Deep Sea Dive.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and Chronicles continued the series tradition of having secrets placed in cryptic locations. These secrets were golden skulls and supplies in The Last Revelations, and golden roses in Chronicles. These secrets serve as a way to entice players to replay the games, and only the most dedicated fans ever get to say they achieved 100 percent completion in a classic Tomb Raider game.

Now that Tomb Raider 4-6 have been remastered by Aspyr, there’s even more reason to get these secrets: achievements. Unfortunately, Angel of Darkness does not have secrets. However, it’s still worth looking at some of the easiest secrets to miss in the other two games, to prepare you for their difficult puzzle-platforming and unique designs.

The remastered collection has a secret counter in the inventory, making it easier to know when you’ve found everything in a level.

8

Angkor Wat: Kingdom Of The Golden Skull

The Last Revelation

It’s true that Tomb Raider was one of the first 3D platformer games to reach mass-market appeal: while Super Mario 64 hogs the legacy today, Lara Croft’s series was a revolutionary and important title too. Much like their jolly, plumber-led peer, the games retain some ethos of 2D platformer design.

At the very start of The Last Revelation, you’ll find a golden skull in a darkened area if you turn around, rather than rushing forward in the intended direction to clear the level.

The remastered version suffers from even darker lighting than the original, making the skull impossible to see. We recommend switching graphics modes often for more visual clarity. You can do this instantly by pressing Start.

7

Tomb Of Seth: Optional But Substantial

The Last Revelation

The Last Revelation is the biggest classic Tomb Raider title, and if size is measured in level design rather than spectacle, it might be the biggest game in the entire series. It’s filled with optional areas that take just as much effort to get to as the main ones, but are entirely missable.

In the Tomb of Seth, at the point where you insert the Eye Artifact, you’ll find an area with a barely visible rope hanging down above a pedestal. Climb up, grab the rope and turn around. You’ll spot a small opening opposite the door where you’re supposed to insert the eye artifact. Swing to this opening, and you’ll happen upon a room that counts as a secret in itself: you’ll hear a jingle as soon as you enter.

We recommend switching to retro graphics here to make it easier to see.

6

Tomb Of Seth: The Rotating Spike Cylinder

The Last Revelation

If you’re looking to achieve 100 percent completion in The Last Revelation, be prepared to be thoroughly tested. The game is extremely hard even on a regular, non-completionist playthrough. In its third level, it starts punishing you for seeking out secrets. Once you’ve climbed into the room opposite the eye artifact door, you’ll find a room with a sheer drop in the middle, and two pathways leading left and right. Each will lead you to some items, as well as ladders to a hallway leading back to where you started.

Here’s the problem: there’s a giant rotating cylinder adorned with spikes silently circling the entire room in an infinite loop. Each time it passes, it will rob Lara of most if not all of her health. Given that all you get here are some lousy flares and Uzis you don’t need yet, this secret doesn’t feel worth the rewards, so 100 percent completion has to be the reward you’re aiming for.

5

Valley Of The Kings: The Ninja’s Secret Stash

The Last Revelation

The game’s design documents call these enemies desert warriors. Most veteran raiders call them ninjas. One look at their old, non-remastered models is enough to show you why: they look exactly like ninjas depicted by Hollywood in the ’80s.

Valley of the Kings opens with one of the few combat sequences in classic Tomb Raider games that feels well-organized and intense. Once you’re done killing these so-called ninjas, inspect the dark areas in the corners of the map that they spawned out of. You’ll find large medipacks and shotgun ammo.

4

Desert Railroad: Grenade Gun

The Last Revelation

The Desert Railroad level in The Last Revelation is among the most fondly remembered, and for good reason. It’s well-designed, steadily-paced and mercifully linear. If you’re willing to chuck linearity out of the window, though, you’ll be rewarded.

Once you have the crowbar, you can backtrack to a boxcar where Lara can pry open a wooden door she couldn’t access before. Inside you’ll find the Grenade Gun and two boxes of flash grenades.

The Grenade Gun is one of the few ways to kill the immortal skeletons in the Alexandria section. You can also kill them with headshots using a scope, use the shotgun’s knockback to make them fall into water, or have them fall from large heights.

3

Alexandria: Too Big For Its Own Good

The Last Revelation

The Last Revelation is a massive game to the point of being unweildy, and its Alexandria portion veers into being almost open-world. The Alexandria level proper serves mostly as a hub world, so you’ll likely spend far more time in the Coastal Ruins or Catacombs.

However, should you choose to explore the buildings in Alexandria, you’ll find a switch on one of the buildings opposite Jean-Yves’ office. Navigate there, and you’ll be able to access a secret later on inside the building. There is no indication what the switch does when you press it, making it easy to see why even veteran raiders often miss this one.

2

Streets Of Rome: The Backrooms

Chronicles

Decades of disrespect by critics, cynics and angry video game YouTubers mean that few give Tomb Raider: Chronicles a chance. The game is actually decent if not good, and its tutorial area is quite fun to navigate. Unlike The Last Revelation, where Von Croy would keep cramping up your style to give you tips you don’t need, Chronicles’ tutorial is quite fun.

Unfortunately, most veteran players already know how to play these games, and only dedicated fans play Chronicles to begin with. As such, this tutorial area, and the back room containing a golden rose within, gets missed: it’s optional and non-intrusive, so you might not even realize it’s there.

1

Deep Sea Dive: Wrecked U-Boat

Chronicles

This level is in itself a missed secret, as many who played Chroicles quit before they got here. But provided you make it to Deep Sea Dive, you’ll be treated to a fun swimming section. Unfortunately, you’ll have a submarine chasing you and firing torpedoes.

You can discharge chaff to misdirect the torpedoes, but in doing so you might miss a small opening where you can get inside a wrecked U-Boat and obtain the golden rose it contains. Since the remastered version allows for quicksaves, you should have an easier time navigating to it now.