Shadow of the Tomb Raider Puzzle Solutions

Welcome to the page for all puzzle solutions in Shadow of the Tomb Raider! All of these puzzles are ones that you'll encounter while playing through the main game, so check out our walkthrough if you haven't yet, as these are all featured within the walkthrough! 

Listed below are all the puzzles in the main story. Click one one of the puzzles below and you'll be directed on how to complete them:

In the next area, there will be one last puzzle, which involves pushing down a cart onto the rotatable track in the middle.

Once you've done that, rotate the platform so that the side you can push is facing you. 

Then all you need to do is attach another rope to the cart, pull it up, and then break the rope.

In the next area, you'll find some of your old stuff, but it needs to be cut down with a knife in order to reach it.

You can find a makeshift knife by interacting with the front of the plane, which will cause the plane to fall into the water.

Go into the water and try to get the piece of metal off of the rotor. An eel will attack you, but you will need to kill it with the piece of metal once Lara pries it off. Once you have it, you will need to sharpen it in order to cut the rope.

Collect shrapnel from three small boxes located in the area in order to sharpen your knife. They have little cogs on top of them as indicators. Once you've obtained all three, head back to the fireplace and you'll have unlocked the inventory option, and you can craft the makeshift knife.

Once you cut the ropes, you'll need to climb up some trees and jump onto a small cliff in order to cut some more ropes holding up your gear.

In order to bring the bridge up, you need to start by starting the water flow at the top of the ruins.

Then, have Jonah help you push the lever near the bridge. 

Once you do that, run down or jump down from the end of the bridge to the area at the bottom and fire a rope from that side to the other and connect it to the thing that rolls down. The bridge will then be raised up and you can walk across it, but make sure to look around since there are some collectibles in this area as well.

The puzzle is pretty simple: Go to the large globe and turn it until you get 30 degrees North and 90 degrees East.

Once that happens, climb up the ladder that drops down and go to the other side of the room, then open the bat's wings.

Once they're open, go back downstairs and place the shield statues on top of the lights.

Once you've done that, you'll find out where the white queen is. Go back to the globe and readjust the coordinates to anything other than 30 N and 90 E and the ladder will retract, allowing you to get to the white queen.

Take her out and put her between the two knights with shield, and a door will open behind the place where the queen was.

This puzzle can be found at the end of the Incan ruins that lead to some murels which indicate the location of the Hidden City. The specific rotations of the stones are pictured above.

This trial is tricky, but just follow the path the game tells you to go and you'll find something that could be used as a ladder if you turn it on its side. 

Keep going down the path and you'll reach a spinning object that you can attach a rope tether to. Attach it to the middle mechanism in the trial and you'll start turning the mechanism using wind.

Jump onto the ladder that is there, then jump over to the next upper area. Watch out for the rotating mechanism parts, though. 

Keep going down the path until you get back to the ladder, then climb up it to reach another ladder. Keep going down the path until you reach another similar spinning mechanism and a wall that needs to be opened to reach the middle mechanism.

There's a rope tether that you can break down using the outside spinning mechanism (or maybe using Lara herself), and then there's another rope tether that you can pull to open the door, but you need to keep it open using the other rope tether stand outside. 

Once it's kept open, attach the middle mechanism to the spinning mechanism outside to spin the upper portion of the middle mechanism.

The other ladder will break, so you'll need to find another way up by climbing up the middle mechanism. Just follow the path and you'll eventually reach the top of the mechanism, then you need to jump on to a wall and you can climb to the exit of the trial from there.

You're gonna have to get the water flowing to the wheel, so what you need to do is attach a rope tether from the spinning mechanism to the middle dragon statue thing. Once you do that, rotate it so that it's facing to the right of Lara. 

Then, go over there and a savage will crawl out of one of the crawl spaces. Once you kill him, jump onto the dragon statue and break the debris at the top. 

Once it's broken, rotate the dragon statues in a way that leads the water to the wheel, and you'll have it moving. 

Once it's rotating, you'll have opened one of the two doors. In order to open the second one, you'll need to turn another wheel on the other side of the area, but for now, deal with all the savages that spawn after opening the first door. This time, archers will also spawn, but deal with the melee one first and just hide behind the pillar, then deal with the archers from behind it. 

Keep going forward and another two melee savages will spawn from the crawl spaces. There will also be an archer on top of the area, so be sure to kill him (there's a large toxic barrel there, so be sure to destroy that for an easy kill).

Once he's dead, head over to the other side of the area by following the highlighted trail (it will be an underwater opening in the center of the area).

Once you're near the other rope pulling mechanism on the other side, a bunch of savage archers will spawn on the other side, so run back and use the ledge you climbed as cover to take them down. Then, go back up and kill the melee savages that run after you from the left side of the wheel. 

After you've killed them all, use the rope pull mechanism on the dragon stone that has water flowing down it, and then rotate it to fill up the water basin in front of you. 

Once it's filled up, break down the debris keeping the other dragon statue in place. Head back to the rope mechanism, and a few melee savages will spawn as well as a few arrow archers, one where you killed them earlier and another in an area behind the spinning mechanism. 

Use the rope mechanism to turn the other water wheel and trigger a cutscene that allows you to progress through the game.

After you enter the library, you're going to have to find an entrance to a secret crypt.

Begin by breaking the wall that's to the right of the big painting with the heron and the eclipse.

Then, go upstairs and break down a wall that reveals a sun. Once you've done this, you'll be able to break down the painting of the heron and the eclipse.

Then you just need to find a cross afterwards, which is literally just straight ahead of you after the cutscene at the other end of the library.

You'll need to break down a wall to get to it, but by adjusting the position of the cross, you'll open the crypt entrance.

After this point, almost all of the puzzles rely on the Pamphlet given earlier in town. However, all the solutions will be here, so you don't need to look at it unless you're confused.

Begin by moving the mirror contraption so that it reflects the light, and it will open a door.

In the next area, you just need to get Jonah's help to clean the mirror, which will reflect the light forward to the next path.

The next puzzle is just you picking the right station to interact with. The one you need to light up with the mirror is the one that contains a woman holding up a cloth to Jesus.

After you've done so, you'll enter the next path. The final part of the puzzle is a little complex, but it's not too bad. Just move the left mirror so that it lights up the middle option, then interact with it.

Head over to the other side and move the light so it's on the far left option. After interacting with that one, you'll enter a cutscene in which you find the Box of Ix Chel, and then the entire place breaks down.