Tomb Raider 2013/Getting Started

The only rule when learning a speedrun is: Do whatever you enjoy, some people enjoy doing runs right away without using any skips/glitches. Some people prefer to practice many skips before they attempt a run.

Important to know: This run depends on FPS a lot and around 150 FPS are recommened This means you will have to run this game with vsync = off! Binding jump to mousewheel makes a couple of skips a lot easier and is really comfortable in general throughout the run.

The goal of this section is to point out the most rewarding skips and tricks to learn for starters. In addition to that there are lists of common problems people face with solutions that hopefully will help you out. On the Selecting a route / Skips page you will find all the major skips labeled with a difficulty. We will have a closer look on some of them here in chronological order.

General Time Saving

A list of the easiest ways to save time

• Checkpoint reloading. You can find the checkpoint reloads which save time here: Techniques
• The general rule in this game is: When going uphill jumping is faster. When you're going down hill, you are in a cave or it is windy scrambling is faster.
• Ice skating glitch. Performing dirty tricks when Lara is about to pick up the walkie talkie causes the ice skating glitch. It is super easy and can be cancelled by pressing aim. It can be used up to 6 times in total (depending on the skips you are going for).
• 1: (If you don't go for "Rope Skip") Right before Lara steps into a trap and hangs upside down. She then has to shoot 3 people with the pistol and aquires the rope
• 2: After the collapsing rope right before Lara gets to the monastery.
• 3: (If you don't go for "The Big One") After Grim dies in Shanty Town.
• 4: (If you don't go for "The Big One") After crossing the bridge above Shanty Town where Roth gives you cover there is a short walkie talkie sequence before entering the cave.
• 5: (This one neither saves nor loses time) When Lara gets to Shanty Town for the second time after leaving the forest (or after going for "The Big One").
• 6: In case you go for the gondola skip you will need to perform this glitch

Deer Door Clip

You can attempt this over and over again without dying. There are also multiple door clips during the run and it's a trick you have to master before you attempt the fire arrow skip.

Video

(Probably needs a more serious video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm5AcWxGsHA

Problems

• Lara gets into the door but then pushed out again.
• Lara moves away from the door instead of going through.

Solutions

• Make sure Lara is as close to the door as possible before you attempt the actual clip. A good way to get her close is a scramble into the door. Note that Lara is closest to the door right before she is standing straight again. This means that you should start the door clip during the last part of her standing up animation.

• A good trick is to always end your clipping attempt with holding forward. In case you are glitched into the door but didn't make it quite through, holding forward while pressing jump can solve the problem.

• The door clips work best on LOW! framerates. Some of the skips in this game however require a framerate of about 150FPS. If your framerate is above 200 you are much more likely to get pushed away from the door than actually going through.

• Hitting the correct frames is humanly impossible. This trick does have framerate RNG so don't worry if you can't get it 100% consistent. However changing direction with the correct rythm will affect the probabilty of getting through the door. Try to go from spamming back and foward slowly to as fast as you can to get a feeling for the best rythm

House Skip

It is only one jump you will have to get right. So there is not a lot of memorization invovled.

Video

(Video doesn't show proper setup, you might have to check the footage of a speedrun) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUz5ci9aRY8

Problems

• Lara doesn't do the scramble when landing on the edge
• Lara always falls down instead of jumping from midair
• Lara doesn't grab the roof

Solutions

• This skip doesn't work when there are enemies near by. In order to get this right you will have to kill the 2 enemies before that quickly. In case you didn't kill them quickly enough additional guys show up, you will have to kill them too.
• The secret for this skip is in the timing of your scramble and jump. When you scramble and jump but Lara falls down you pressed jump too late. If you get a jump but Lara doesn't grab the roof you either pressed jump too early or you were not close enough to the edge when you hit scramble. Slightly change up your timings until Lara grabs the roof.
• You should have at least 60FPS for this otherwise it won't work.
• Lara will strech out her arms immediatley when she is going to grab the roof. So right after jumping you will know if she makes it or not. In case she doesn't strech out her arms immediately there is a small chance to still make it by slightly pressing left or right midair. (Do never let go of forward though).

Wolf Cave Approach

A neat skip that invovles smart use of terrain. You won't have to learn any crazy glitches or tricks for this.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIndeCfWczA

Problems

• Lara doesn't grab the small roof and falls down
• Lara slips off the big main roof instead of jumping.

Solutions

• The only difficult part in this is the jump from the fence to the small roof on the side of the house, having the correct camera angle will decide wether she grabs the roof or falls down.
• Take your time, do it step by step. Jump on the fence. Press forward to press yourself against the wall. Add right while keeping forward pressed. Face the small roof with the camera and press jump.
• You don't have to get off a jump from the main roof, it is only a little bit faster. Instead you can slide down the roof towards the rope. Or jump to the rope directly. But if you really want to get the jump off the big roof to the rope binding it to mousewheel makes it a lot easier.

Radio Tower OoB

Probably the easiest way to get OoB in the game

Video

• Video doesn't show optimal route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBorEwHoNJo

• There is faster version that contains a short skywalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZBA59S7p1A

Problems

• Lara doesn't step up the ledge, she just keeps jumping
• Lara falls down the hollow rock and I fall down completely while trying to get up
• Lara gets back inbound when I try to jump from the hollow rock into the wall

Solutions

• Lara has a different posture when there are enemies nearby. If you use a practice save file where you have killed the enemies already the set ups for getting oob can be different
• Your positioning and camera anlge will determing wether Lara steps up the ledge or does a jump, you can try and aim for different spots to slightly change the way Lara faces until the step up becomes consistent.
• When you fall into the hollow rock, you can use the rocks shadow on the wall to get an idea of your positioning
• Holding aim while midair will make you stick landing in this game, if you keep getting inbound try to hold aim while midair. This will make the landing into the wall easier and can prevent you from getting inbounds again.

New Fire arrow Skip

This skips a lot of slow sections plus cutscenes you don't really want to watch. Just keep in mind that you will have to go for the shanty town door clip after this because you don't have fire arrows.

Video

• Video doesn't show optimal route after the clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx0DNrHJkRg

Problems

• Lara doesn't get enough height
• Lara get onto the roof but keeps falling down again

Solutions

• This skip is all about the set up, watch videos of other people doing it or try to aim for different spots until you find something that works out best for you. There is framerate RNG invovled in this, not getting it 100% is normal.
• When Lara is on top of the roof always keep aim pressed. In order to step up to the balcony you will have to turn her around and press foward so you are pressing her against the balcony. As long as you press aim you can not fall down. Pressing jump however will make her fall down again unless she steps up onto the balcony and getting out of the glitch. So do only press jump when you are lined up with the balcony pressing forward. Binding jump to mousewheel makes this easier.

Shanty Town Gate Clip

It skips a really long fight, and if you went for fire arrow skip you have to do this anyways

Problems

• I can do deer door clip but Lara just won't get through this gate
• The game didn't give me fire arrows after clipping through the gate
• Enemies are attacking me all the time halp!!!

Solutions

• Getting close enough to the gate can be tricky. Many runners perfer the very right side of the gate to clip through
• Scramble won't work to get Lara close enough to the gate you will have to use jump in order to get closer
• The main reason Lara doesn't get through is because you are not close enough to the gate! Try getting even closer!
• Reload checkpoint before you attempt the clip. It will A: Give you more time for the clip because enemies are further away. B: Get Lara out of the injured state so clipping becomes easier.
• When you start killing enemies and get a checkpoint and then clip through the gate there is a very high chance you don't get fire arrows, always reload checkpoint instead of killing enemies should give you fire arrows 99% of the time.
• Note that for the PC route fire arrows aren't technically needed to finish the game. The only place where fire arrows are mandatory is the enterance of the caverns which can be skipped with the Shanty Town OoB. However it is better to have them because you can save time later on burning down debree with a fire arrow instead of the torch.

Elevator Skip PC version

This skip is ridiculous. It skips an entire puzzle with one of the easiest tricks in the run

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dDt_sQE7hE

Problems

• Lara doesn't get into the staircase
• Lara gets into the staircase but won't drop down

Solutions

• Make sure Lara lands as close to the corner as possible, and you hit scramble when the grating is bent down to the max.
• Never let go of forward
• When you are glichted into the staircase, pressing jump will make her drop down.

Research Base Fight Skip

Saves a good amount of time, once you know how it works it's quite easy but you will have to get used to it first.

Video

• Video doesn't show proper setup and alternate version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uiMFr23xPM

Problems

• Lara just won't step up the freaking thingy
• Lara glitches into the construction but ends up inside instead of ontop.
• How do I even????

Solutions

• The trick here is again the step up animation that will get Lara gliched into the construction. In order to make Lara do that step up animation you will have to get close enough to the wooden post. Jumping and then pressing left midair is a very effective way to do so.
• When Lara doesn't come out on top but instead is inside of the construction it means that she was facing too much to the left. Aim a bit to the right while setting up, when you jump and press left to get close enough to the post she will face more to the right and you should get out on top.
• 1. Position yourself at the right side of the post. 2. Aim a bit to the right. 3. jump and press left a little so you will land close to the post. 4. Press jump again (or spam) right when she lands while pressing left, this will make her do the step up animation. 5. When she steps up press and hold forward. 6. Once she appears on top never let go of forward and spam scramble until she doesn't get draged back anymore.

Final Skip

You can fail this like 100 times before you start losing time

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HrSxQ3IED0

Problems

• Lara doesn't stay on the fence, she always falls down.
• Lara doesn't jump far enough and keeps getting stuck at the side of the bridge

Solutions

• Going for a scramble jump will increase your chance of making it over the fence of the bridge
• A good way to make her land on the fence is to start pressing aim while mid air. Once she lands Lara will automatically aim with her weapon and the result is like an aimbot for sticking landings
• When you get to the side of the bridge it is totally fine. But never ever let go of forward. Pressing forward and left will make her move to the left side. If you then start turning your camera slowly to the left(ccw) at some point she will stop floating and land. Be prepared for that moment she lands because you have to press jump immediately to get over the fence or she will drop down
• Having jump on mousewheel makes it easier in case Lara got stuck at the side of the bridge.