Classic Character Joins Surprise Franchise

Tomb Raider's Lara Croft will make an appearance in Naraka: Bladepoint. The martial arts-inspired battle royale recently hosted a livestream showcasing plans for its upcoming third-anniversary celebration, which is scheduled for this coming August. The trailer for the festival showcased many of the upcoming features coming to Naraka: Bladepoint, such as the brand-new map Perdoria and planned collaborations with popular franchises like Tomb Raider.

Since its debut in 1996, the Tomb Raider series has become one of the most iconic video game franchises, with numerous spinoffs ranging from comics to an upcoming animated Netflix Tomb Raider show. Series protagonist Lara Croft managed to reach a level of prominence few characters could match, cementing the dual-wielding archaeologist's place as one of the most well-known female protagonists of any IP. Her popularity has also led to crossovers with several major titles, such as Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Fortnite, and Final Fantasy XV.

Now, the globetrotting spelunker is set to appear in Naraka: Bladepoint, the fast-past melee-focused battle royale that invites up to 60 players to duke it out until a single survivor remains. Lara's outfit will be added as a skin for the assassin Matari, the Silver Crow, who is widely regarded as one of the most mobile playable characters in Naraka: Bladepoint. Though no actual preview of the skin has been revealed just yet, this isn't the first crossover Naraka: Bladepoint has hosted. Based on previous collaborations, the Lara Croft skin will likely be split across several cosmetic categories, including an outfit, hairstyle, and miscellaneous accessories.

2024 Is A Big Year For Naraka: Bladepoint

The third anniversary is shaping up to be a huge event for Naraka: Bladepoint. Along with the Tomb Raider event, fans are also receiving a new map, Perdoria, the first added to the game in nearly two years. Perdoria is scheduled to launch on July 2 and, similar to Holoroth, will feature unique secrets, hazards, and mechanics not seen in previous maps. Naraka: Bladepoint also announced plans for a collaboration with CD Projekt Red's open-world RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, though no concrete date has been given apart from a release window for sometime later this year.

While the Tomb Raider crossover will likely excite fans of both games, 2024 also brings some sad news for Naraka: Bladepoint as the game announced it would be shutting down support for the Xbox One by the end of August. Thankfully, all progress and earned cosmetics are still registered to a player's Xbox account, meaning any impacted users will not lose access to Naraka: Bladepoint's many heroes and goodies when they install the game on an Xbox Series X/S or via the Xbox platform on PC.