What does the end of Shadow of the Tomb Raider mean for Lara Croft? Join us as we break down the ending and post-credits scene of the game.
The ending of Shadow of the Tomb Raider brings Lara Croft’s beginning story to a close, but if you’re not watching carefully, you might not be sure what happened at the end and the post-credits scene. That’s where we come in, with this quick review of Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s ending.
We’ll break down the story and clear up any confusion, but also discuss what this ending means for Lara and the future of the Tomb Raider series. We also take a look at the original Shadow of the Tomb Raider ending, which was found in a non-updated version of the game.
It goes without saying that there are plenty of spoilers below, so if you haven’t finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider yet and want to give it a try, it’s best to stop by read now.
Towards the end of the game, Lara finds herself in a very difficult situation, as her main enemy, the Order of the Trinity, has the Chak Chel key and the Ix Chel cash chest, and with these items in The property of the Trinity leader, Dr. Pedro Dominguez (or Amaru as he is known in Paititi) and the Kukulkan, are free to take control of the Mayan apocalypse and use it to reshape the world to their advantage. Of course, it is Lara’s responsibility to stop the last ritual, and she has the support of the rebels in Paititi and the Yaaxil tribe to help her.
While the Paititi rebels launch a direct attack on Trinity, Lara tries a more subtle approach by teaming up with the initially hostile Yaaxil tribe. Lara sees the Yaaxil tribe being attacked by Trinity and learns that they play a vital role in it. to bring back the prophecy… The sun. Lara teams up with Crimson Fire, the leader of the Yaaxil tribe, and together they fight to reach the summit where Dominguez performs the ritual. Entering, Lara must fight Dominguez who has become godlike with the power of Kukulkan running through his veins.
During the battle, Lara is able to snatch the dagger from Dominguez, giving her a portion of Kukulkan’s power, which she uses to defeat Dominguez and the members of the Trinity High Council. Lara kills Dominguez by inserting the Chak Chel Key into his chest, ending his plan to reshape the world and avenging her father’s death by killing the man who ordered his murder. In his last moments, Dominguez puts the Chak Chel key in Lara’s hand and asks her to protect Paititi.
Kukulkan’s power is transferred to Lara, giving her the power to reshape the world as well. At this time, she sees a vision of a happy childhood memory with her parents, revealing that she is considering using the apocalypse to bring her parents back. Lara turns away from her family and the fairy scene to see Crimson Fire waiting for her, they still have to make a sacrifice to a god to complete the ritual. With Kukulkan now inside Lara, she prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the world and Paititi. Crimson Fire drops the dagger, which stops just above Lara’s chest and ejects the Kukulkan light from her body. The eclipse fades as the light leaves Lara’s body and the screen gradually fades to white, leaving us unsure of what happened to our heroine.
Two days later, we are at Uneratu’s funeral where her son Etzli says goodbye and shares his hopes for rebuilding Paititi after decades of turmoil. Lara and Jonah go their separate ways, with Lara wanting to stay and help in Paititi while Jonah heads for the coast with mechanics and an interest in Abbey.
The credits roll, but the story isn’t over yet, as Shadow of the Tomb Raider also has a post-credits scene that wraps up Lara’s opening story nicely. In this scene, we see Lara writing a letter to Jonah, reflecting on her latest adventure, as she sits in the office of Croat’s mansion; A house she avoided throughout the revised trilogy because it was always associated with tragedy. Lara seems to have found closure by killing Dominguez and for the first time in the series she seems happy and at peace. Memorabilia from all three games can be seen around the room, as well as a picture of Lara that could have been done as a baby dinosaur in the middle, a little nod to the PS1 era of Tomb Raider and maybe even a nod to where Lara could Croft to be headed in the future.
We also get a glimpse of the loyal servant of the Croit family, who enters Lara’s room with a tray of tea. It was obvious that he was shaking, which could be a reference to Tomb Raider 2 where Lara traps the servant in a freezer. Maybe it’s just that it’s old and weak, but it would be a good idea. With this post-credits scene, Shadow of the Tomb Raider comes to an end, closing out the story of Tomb Raider’s beginnings, but leaving the door open for more adventures with Lara Croft re- developed in the future. At least for now, Lara wants to spend some time “with the living” before exploring more tombs.
That’s it, the ending of Shadow of the Tomb Raider is pretty simple. Right now, Square Enix doesn’t seem to have any plans to continue Lara’s story, with Camilla Luddington, who played the Tomb Raider in each of the last three games, saying she doesn’t know if she’ll be asked to to return in a new man. Tomb raider game. So we may have to wait a while to see Lara Croft take on dinosaurs again like she did in 1996.
However, the other post-credits scene for Shadow of the Tomb Raider could provide some insight into this. This alternate ending to Shadow of the Tomb Raider was found in undated versions of the game and features new hints and changes, all of which strongly suggest a remake of the 1996 game starring Camilla Luddington . You can watch it below.
The first change is that you can see a pair of pistols on a small table in the background, which are the weapons of choice for the original Tomb Raider. We also see an unopened letter on Lara’s desk from Jacqueline Natla, the villain of the 1996 Tomb Raider game.
