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Shadow of the Tomb Raider guide: Kuwaq Yaku crypts

Nine Strides’ Boots and Condor Cowl of Urqu

Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix via Polygon
Jeffrey Parkin (he/him) has been writing video game guides for Polygon for almost seven years. He has learned to love just about every genre of game that exists.

There are two crypts in Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s Kuwaq Yaku region. In this guide, we’ll show you how to find both, where to collect all of the relics, documents, and survival caches along the way, and how to solve their puzzles.

Kuwaq Yaku base camp

This crypt is straight west from the main Kuwaq Yaku base camp, but you’ll have to swim a little to get there.

Finding the crypt

  1. From town, hop into the river and start swimming west.
  2. There’s a small camp/dump on the left bank beneath the pipeline. Get out there, grab some resources, and head into the small cave.
  3. Dive down under the water and follow the tunnel there.
  4. When you surface on the other side, climb out of the water at the ledge.
  5. Follow the path and climb the small wall you come to. Pass through the narrow tunnel and drop down on the other side.
  6. The path to the right loops back around to the pool you just came from, but there’s some gold at the other end to grab. When you have everything, come back to this intersection.
  7. Climb up the next ledge, and keep following the path.
  8. Watch for the oily rag covered barrier ahead of you. Craft yourself a fire arrow (or use one of the nearby bottles to make a molotov cocktail) and burn the barrier down.

Finding the sarcophagus

  1. Drop into the ruins and turn left to pick up a document.
  2. Turn around and head through the door on the right. Follow the hall around to the left and visit the mural.
  3. Follow the hall to the right until you come to the broken bridge.
  4. Keep walking forward until the platform under you collapses. Maneuver your way past the deadly spikes — to the right, then left, then right again — until you come to the grapple axe point.
  5. Swing across and pull yourself up on the ledge on the other side of the chasm.
  6. Follow the hallway and jump the gap you come to. You’ll find the sarcophagus in the next room where you can pick up Nine Strides’ Boots.

Exiting the crypt

  1. Head back along the path until you get back to the grapple axe point at the bottom of the deadly slide.
  2. Grapple axe across the pit and aim for one of the pickaxe walls.
  3. Work your way to the right, then climb up. Just keep climbing.
  4. You’ll come to another ledge to climb at the top.
  5. Follow the path forward (and a little left) until you run out of path to follow.
  6. Turn left and jump across to the other pillar, and pick up the gold there.
  7. Hop back to the path and jump forward one more time. Scramble to the top of the final pillar.
  8. Grapple axe across, and you’ll land back in the room where the platform collapsed.
  9. Just retrace your steps from here to return to Kuwaq Yaku.

Hunting Grounds base camp crypt

To get to the second crypt in Kuwaq Yaku, you’ll need to progress through the main story until you pick up the shotgun.

Finding the crypt

  1. Head east from the Hunting Grounds base camp and follow the water around to the southeast.
  2. At the far end of the water, you’ll see a rusty metal door on the left side of the pond.

Finding the sarcophagus

  1. Shoot the door with your shotgun.
  2. Walk inside.
  3. Open the sarcophagus to pick up the Condor Cowl of Urqu.

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