Brawler

Brawler skills make Lara tougher to kill. She improves her melee techniques, her healing, and gains some stealth advantages.

Tier I

Icon	Skill	Description	Notes
	Thick-Skinned	Lara takes less damage from enemy gunfire and melee attacks. This is cumulative with Hearth Stone.	A weak skill on lower difficulty levels, this is extremely useful if you’re playing on higher difficulties. Survivability is a huge issue if you try to tackle Survivor mode!
	Efficient Killer	Enemies killed while in stealth will be automatically looted for resources.	This is a lower priority skill. You can always loot slain enemies after a battle, and the minor advantage you get from looting corpses ahead of time isn’t worth losing out on most other Tier I skills.
	Dodge Counter	Incapacitate unarmored enemies while dodging with a well-timed .	This skill leads to powerful things down the line, as you take Dodge Kill and Dodge Kill Mastery. However, it’s better to invest in this line after you’ve at least gotten to Tier II skills. You can even choose to wait for Tier III, because it’s later in the game when you start facing frequent armored opponents.
	Duelist Reflexes	Increased timing window available for a dodge counter and earn extra XP when successfully performing a dodge kill.	Take this soon after you start investing in Dodge Counter. The increased timing window makes it much easier to pull off these moves reliably.
	Fast Healer	Bandage wounds faster. The effect is cumulative with Field Medic.	This is another skill that is of limited use on easier difficulty modes but very useful on the tough ones. When enemies are doing damage more quickly and consistently, you need to be able to heal at a moment’s notice. You get this by opening a Codex inside a Tomb.
	Inner Strength	Health is instantly restored once per combat encounter when Lara is critically injured.	You get this automatically by opening a Codex inside the Voice of God Tomb.
	Iron Hide	Lara takes significantly less damage from explosions and fire.	The higher your difficulty, the more valuable this skill becomes. It’s a must-have on Survivor unless you’re a queen of stealth kills. Even then it’s practically essential.

Tier II

Icon	Skill	Description	Notes
	Deadly Force	Stealth finishers are much faster and kill enemies with brutal force. Press to kill nearby, unaware enemies.	If you prefer melee Takedowns to ranged attacks, this is a very strong skill. It becomes much safer to eliminate targets on the periphery. When combined with Silent Killer, Lara becomes a force of the wilderness, picking off people one by one.
	Dodge Kill	Kill unarmored enemies during a Dodge Counter.	Once you’re investing in the line of Dodge skills, you have to take this. Dodging is almost worthless without it.
	Stealth Landing	Lara no longer generates noise when landing from jumps or drops.	Perfect for any stealth player. Used with Deadly Force Lara can wait for patrollers to come underneath her hiding spots, drop down, and score the kill.
	Field Medic	Bandage wounds faster.	Very useful on higher difficulty modes, when every second counts (especially if you’re injured)!
	Death From Above	Knife kill foes instantly when leaping down on them from above.	Death From Above is situationally useful, but it’s much more important for stealth killers. If you are a ranged fighter this won’t come into play as often.

Tier III

Icon	Skill	Description	Notes
	Heart of Stone	Lara takes significantly less damage from gunfire and melee attacks. This is cumulative with Thick-Skinned.	Take this as soon as Tier III skills unlock unless you’re not getting hurt often in any of your battles. If that’s the case, you should probably be playing on a higher difficulty mode!
	Dodge Kill Mastery	Instantly kill armored targets when Dodging.	This is what makes the Dodge line of skills come to life. You can now take out Deathless when they go after you in melee. This saves Lara frequently when she’s dealing with these heavy, armored, melee attackers.
	Adrenaline	Resist damage from enemies for a short time after you score a successful stealth kill.	Though this sounds like a skill for stealth players, it actually isn’t. People who take all of the stealth skills don’t need damage resistance after their stealth kills. Their plan is to eliminate all viable targets without anyone noticing. This skill is actually better for players who are trying to eliminate groups quickly; take the initial stealth attack and then gun down the enemies nearby. Great for speed runs.
	Silent Killer	Stealth kill enemies without alerting nearby foes.	This is the crown jewel of stealth skills. Silent Killer makes it possible for Lara to trash groups that haven’t spotted her yet. Kill everything on the periphery and then you can even work on people who are standing close to each other.
	Strong Medicine	Resist damage for a short time after bandaging.	Another great skill on Survivor difficulty that loses its luster for players on easier modes.