Doppelgänger

Characteristics

The appearance of the Doppelgänger is identical to that of Lara, but her hair is a darker shade of brown, she has dark lines around her eyes, she has darker lips and her skin is paler and veiny. She can not only move exactly in-synchronization with Lara, but can also predict Lara's moves and dodge or counter her attacks. She remains silent throughout all of her appearances.

The Doppelgänger wears her hair tied back in the classic Lara Croft plait and wears fingerless gloves identical to Lara's. Her outfit is similar to Lara's style of outfit but with a darker tone. She wears what appears to be a black leather one-piece with a zip down the front and two zip-pockets, black leather trousers hanging slightly below her waist and black combat boots. She has two gun holsters attached to her trousers.

Tomb Raider & Anniversary

The Lara copy is first encountered in the Atlantis level of Tomb Raider. It reappears in the remake Tomb Raider Anniversary, in the Lost Island level The Great Pyramid. Lara manages to outsmart the Atlantean by tricking it into a pit of lava covered by a trapdoor.

Underworld

A Doppelgänger appears again when Lara returns to Croft Manor to find it in flames. The Doppelgänger attacked Zip and stole Amanda's wraith stone from Lara's vault using a retina scanner. When Lara finds Zip and Winston, Zip attacks her, thinking that the Doppelgänger was her, but Winston and Lara manage to convince Zip that it wasn't her who raided the manor. Lara makes her way to the tech room to view the manor's security footage where she encounters the Doppelgänger on the other side of a glass screen. She is suspicious of the Doppelgänger but thinks she might be a reflection and tests it by making several movements which the Doppelgänger manages to mimic perfectly. However, the Doppelgänger then shoots Alister and confronts Lara directly. Using her ability to predict Lara's moves she dodges all of her gunfire and manages to bring Lara to the floor. The Doppelgänger escapes and Alister dies of the gunshot she fired at him. Zip and Winston see the Doppelgänger escaping the mansion and Lara brings Alister's body out and realizes exactly what the Doppelgänger is; a new clone of her created by Natla.

When Lara confronts Natla, the Doppelgänger and Amanda appear. But the Doppelgänger throws Amanda down the shaft in the chamber and when Lara tries to attack her using Mjöllnir she dodges all of her attacks and escapes. The final confrontation between Lara and the Doppelgänger takes place in Helheim where the Doppelgänger brings Lara to the floor, but before she can hit her Amanda appears and uses her powers to throw the Doppelgänger into a pit with a pool of deadly etir at the bottom.

Lara's Shadow

Lara's Shadow sees the player taking control of the Doppelgänger. The story picks up where the Doppelgänger was thrown down a pit by Amanda. It has landed on a safe platform at the edge of the Eitr pool and is able to use its Shadow Powers to escape the pit and follow Lara. It however arrives after Lara's and Amanda's departure and finds the wounded Jacqueline Natla (who still survived after being hit by Mjolnir) near the destroyed Midgard Serpent. It helps Natla back to a control room of Atlantean design and then sets out to start up a machinery for Natla. She is then ordered to kill Lara. And after dispatching Lara, Natla orders the doppelgänger to "end your own life as well."

At this point the story jumps to the events of Beneath the Ashes, where Lara takes control over the doppelgänger by saying the phrase "Okh Eshivar". It becomes clear that Lara does not hold the doppelgänger responsible for Alister's death as it was just a puppet in Natla's foul game. Lara turns the tables by ordering the doppelgänger to go after Natla to torture and kill her and to not follow any more orders after this, thus freeing it from any master.