During the research stage of earning my platinum for Tomb Raider, I read on more than one occasion that salvage could actually be farmed while in private matches and furthermore, that it could be done solo. A little more research revealed that the same was also supposedly true of XP, now while I didn’t think all these people were collectively lying, I was somewhat sceptical and quite confused. Reason being, I’ve never come across a multiplayer game, where progress made in private matches is saved and actually carries over into public matches.
So I decided to check for myself, I created a private match, started it up and sure enough the game got under way with just me in the lobby. I then proceeded to complete the objectives and crack open a few crates along the way, when the round ended I opted to return to the lobby, noting that the game was saving some data. I then left my private lobby and began searching for a public match, after some time I was plonked me into a public lobby, where I was able to confirm that both salvage and XP earned privately, had indeed been saved and carried over.
While I don’t agree with the notion of boosting just to complete trophies for the sake of it, I understand that not everyone will enjoy Tomb Raiders multiplayer and given that this method doesn’t really affect anyone else (because it’s all done in solo private matches), I feel less uncomfortable sharing my own personal tips and advice. But before I carry on I would like to make it absolutely clear that, I generally do not condone or encourage boosting for trophies that have fair and reasonable requirements, especially if it’s done in public matches where other players are trying to play a normal game.
Righto let’s get started, first things first you need to create a private match, simple enough, just select the multiplayer option from the main menu (you may need to log in beforehand) and then choose to start a private game. Now there are two ways you can go about farming salvage and XP: 1) you can choose to farm each separately or 2) you can try and do a little of both at the same time. I quite like the idea of doing both at the same time because I felt it was a little more productive use of my time but you may feel differently, I’ll explain more below.
Only Farming Salvage
You can farm salvage on any map that takes your fancy but in my experience the best one is Underground because all the crates are positioned in a nice circular pattern and they aren’t spread out too far from each other. Additionally all the crates are in easy to reach locations, this means you don’t waste time on climbing or excessive jumping, which you’ll face on other maps. Salvage can also be farmed whilst playing any game mode you want because obviously the objectives don’t have any impact on the crates. Whatever mode you select, you’ll want to change the match time from its default to the longest option available, this means you’ll spend less time loading new matches.
To maximise the salvage you recover from a single match, I recommend equipping the two following perks: Advanced Looting, which will increase the amount of salvage you’ll get from each crate (roughly double) and Second Wind, which will allow you to get around the map that bit faster. Once the match starts, you can choose to travel either clockwise or anti-clockwise, I don’t think it really matters but you might have a personal preference. In total there are five salvage crates dotted around Underground: there is one located on the ground floor just to right of each faction’s base, then there’s another two placed either side of the submarines sail and finally there is one in the left most corner of the map, if you’ve just exited from the Survivors spawn.
Simply travel around the map, following the same circular root and opening crates along the way. Depending on how fast you travel around the map, you might end up having to wait a couple seconds while the crates respawn but if you’re not particularly speedy, they should be there waiting as you arrive. As you can imagine it’s a pretty boring task but undeniably effective, when the round ends, you can return to the lobby without losing what you’ve earned or you can wait out the timer and play the next round. A tip that I thought about whilst testing out this farming method was that, if you activate the submarines self-destruct sequence just before the round ends, you can actually add an extra two minutes of game (read: farming) time.
Only Farming XP
Similarly to farming salvage, XP can also be farmed on any map you like but unlike salvage, the game mode you play is a central part of the method. There are only two objective based game modes in TR’s multiplayer and while you can play either to earn XP by completing the objectives. I think the best mode is Rescue because successfully returning a medical kit to the drop off point will net you 750xp plus a bonus for carrying it however far, whereas capturing a radio will only net you 500xp plus bonuses from staying in the zone. Just going by the XP amounts alone, Rescue is already the better choice but when you consider how long it takes to capture a zone compared to carrying a med kit over a short/medium distance, it’s evidently the most efficient game mode. When configuring the match settings, you’ll want to change the target number of medical kits from the default to the maximum and likewise for the match length, also it goes without saying you should be playing as the Survivors. Again, I recommend the Second Wind perk for speedy map traversal but you can use whatever for the other perk slot.
The smallest map in multiplayer is Beach, so it’s clearly the ideal map for quickly reaching and returning medial kits, also the spawn points of the med kits is very convenient, as most don’t require you to do anything but run to their location and that will save you a lot of time and effort. Once you pick up the med kits just carry them as normal back to the capture zone, take the most direct route possible, avoiding any situation that might cause you to needlessly drop and therefore pick up the kits again. There’s only one med kit spawn that requires you to throw the supplies, this is the one located on top of the structure North-West of the Survivors spawn, once you recover the supplies, carry it as close to the edge as possible and throw it towards the slope that leads to the capture zone, then simply use the zip line to quickly get back down. The match will end automatically once you reach the target number of medical kits, once it takes you to the results screen, simply return to the lobby and start a new match.
Farming XP and Salvage at the Same Time
If you’re familiar with my thought process, you’ll know that I’m always looking to optimise whatever task that I’m doing, whether it’s something at work or when I’m playing my games. While testing out the farming methods for salvage and XP it occurred to me that you could probably work on both at the same time and not just by switching tasks between rounds. Well, OK you can’t actually earn XP from completing objectives playing as the Solarii but as the Survivors you could earn some extra salvage/XP depending on how you go about completing the round. There are two methods that I think will overall increase the amount of XP and salvage you can earn per whole match.
The first method involves playing Rescue on Beach and it mostly follows the same game plan as the one I described for only farming XP but with one small alteration. Basically as you’re travelling around map collecting the medical supplies, you should take a detour to the closest crates and open them before picking up the kits. For the one on the steps you just travel further up the hill, to the crate just outside and left of the Solarii spawn. For the one under the arch and the one next to the pillar, you just cut through the tunnel and collect the crate there and up the ramp. There is fifth crate on the map but that would require you to scale a wall, which I don’t think is time efficient, so better to skip that one altogether.
The second method involves playing Cry For Help on Underground, which almost exactly follows the same plan that is outlined for only farming salvage except for one teeny tiny deviation. As you’re going around the map opening the crates, you should plan your route so that it takes you through each of the radio capture zones. I found that if you walk (do not run) straight through the centre of each zone, as you leave you’ll earn a few XP for partial capture progress, granted it is small fry compared to med kit retrievals but every bit helps and besides, you’re practically not even going out of your way to earn it.
Don’t forget to equip the Advanced Looting perk to maximise your salvage from crates and also the Second Wind perk, to get you around the map that bit faster. Oh and one other thing that you can do to earn another small blob of XP, is to shoot three destructible items on the map i.e. barrels/barriers/walls, this will reward you with the ‘Demolitionist’ achievement, which can be earned by both factions but can only be earned once per match.
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So there you have it, my in depth guide on how to easily and efficiently farm both salvage and XP in Tomb Raider’s multiplayer, if you ended up using it I hope it was useful. I know the learning curve can be a bit steep if you’ve never played a similar multiplayer before but I feel that once you get to grips with it, there is some fun to be had and so you might actually get to enjoy working towards these trophies, instead of just doing boring grinds. I realise it might seem ironic for me to provide you with a simple solution to both trophies and then try and convince you that the multiplayer is worth a bash but what can I say, I just want you to give it a fair shot. It seems a waste of money to buy a game and not, at the very least try to enjoy all aspects of it and while I do admit it isn’t an amazing multiplayer experience, I still think it’s fun enough to unlock these trophies naturally (well it was for me anyway).
Do you think the requirements for these trophies are fair or unreasonable? Let me know below :)
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