Do you get DLC weapons from the start of the game?

[ben_wren]

For the previous Tomb Raider game, I bought a bundle edition with DLC included, installed everything, and when I started off the game I had some fancy weapons already available. During the game, there were various points where a new weapon would become available after reaching a certain point, and it should have felt like somewhat of a reward for getting to that stage, but I already had an equivalent, equally powerful weapon from the DLC. I didn't realise the weapons I earned would just be different versions of the special DLC ones, and it kinda undermined the experience of earning better gear as you get further in.

I've just bought the Croft Edition of SOTTR, because I wanted the season pass for the extra DLC challenges, but I don't particularly care about having the fancy DLC weapons if I'm going to be given them from the start and undermine the satisfaction of earning new gear. Is that how the DLC would work on this one?

If I uncheck some of the DLCs on the install page, like the Croft Edition Extras, Umbrage 3-80, or the Exile Fox's Bow, would that stop me from having advanced weapons at the start of the game? Or would I still have to complete certain parts of the game before these DLC weapons would become available anyway? It seems some of the special weapons are linked to the DLC challenges, and if the reward for completing one includes a special weapon, I wouldn't want to end up not receiving it at the appropriate time because I chose to not install it... Does this make sense?! Anyone know how this stuff works?

[Sam]

If this is your first play through, you don't get weapons (sans bow) until you reach a certain point in the game (standard bow). For example you will have the regular bow, a handgun, a AR style weapon and the shotgun in the first scenario in the game, but you loose them all in a plane crash in Peru (2nd scenario).
Unchecking the "extra" weapons, well that just won't happen unless you don't install any DLC including Croft Edition "extras" as they are bundled into 1 download.
There are "extra" weapons on the Shadow home page that you can earn. They are the standard weapons except they're gold.

[ben_wren]

Thanks for the reply! Ok that sounds promising. But yeah in the DLC list on the install page it's broken down into like 30 separate items, including the ones I mentioned above and more, e.g. Sedgewick 707 Shotgun... So it seems like I can choose not to install these. And as I understand it the Croft Edition Extras is just a couple of weapons and outfits - It looks like all the DLC challenges are listed individually, alongside various gear/outfit items. But you think I won't get given any of these until I've earned them in the game?

[Sam]

Originally posted by ben_wren:

Thanks for the reply! Ok that sounds promising. But yeah in the DLC list on the install page it's broken down into like 30 separate items, including the ones I mentioned above and more, e.g. Sedgewick 707 Shotgun... So it seems like I can choose not to install these. And as I understand it the Croft Edition Extras is just a couple of weapons and outfits - It looks like all the DLC challenges are listed individually, alongside various gear/outfit items. But you think I won't get given any of these until I've earned them in the game?

Weapon's type, not weapons themselves.
For instance, the gold shotgun. With your first play through you'll need to earn the shotgun first before having access to the gold shotgun. Only in the New Game+ do you have the shotgun at the beginning of the game if you earned it through whatever play through you use to base your NG+ on.