Level 13 - Catacombs of Talion

Written by

Jitender Saan
G10@Doubt.Com
http://www.lwbbs.net/userpage/g10/index.htm

As you enter this room note three things:

• at the top right corner there is a ladder going down
• a little to your left there is a ramp sliding downwards and a ledge beyond the pit where the sliding ramp ends
• on the wall to your left there is a small crack running along horizontally

First go left and hang on to the crack in the wall, shimmy right till you can pull up and then go to the other side of the ledge. Drop to the floor and collect some goodies and the first secret of the level. Return back to the to the room with the sliding ramp by the same route.

Now take the ladder that is going downwards. You will hear a growling sound indicating the presence of some enemy below. Well you are about to meet the abominable snowman or Yeti. Before taking the ladder down I recommed you make sure that your active weapon is the grenade launcher. As you climb down the steps don't go all the way to the floor, instead keep Lara's feet above the height of the Yeti. When the Yeti is close to the ladder press the jump key and press SPACE while in mid-air, when you land, fire. Do it right and the one shot will kill (or rather blow apart) the Yeti and Lara won't take any damage. Pull the switch you find down there and climb the ladder to go back to the top.

Stand facing the sliding ramp. The next move is again nothing but timing. Move forward and slide down the ramp and at the edge jump forward. Depending on the position from where you jumped you will either land on the ledge beyond or you might hang on to it. In either case keep the CTRL key pressed once you have jumped. Once on the ledge, walk carefully down the steps going down and avoid another set of stalactities (if you have trouble with stalactites remember this, each set consists of three stalactites, simply make sure that the FIRST stalactitie Lara steps under is the smallest, this way you take minimum damage if any).

At the end of the steps you will come to a wide open area with a pool of water in the middle. Watch out for bad guys. Keep to the steps but don't go down to the floor. Face the pool of water and from there look left, you will see a cage and to the right of the cage is a ramp covered with snow and going upwards. Make your way to this ramp till you are standing below the cage. As you approach the ramp look up, a boulder trap which can again be circumvented easily with simple timing. You can choose one of two methods to clear this trap:

• Run up the ramp and as soon as the boulders start rolling down toward you do a back-flip to land on the ledge with the cage.
• Run up the ramp and as soon as the boulders start rolling down toward you do a 180 degree flip (the END key) and run away but at the end do a jump to your left.

In either case your final goal is to climb on to the ledge with the cage so once you are through the boulder trap jump up to the ledge. Hmm, this cage is locked and there is some sort of mask inside it. We need to open this cage. Ok, put your back to the cage and look slightly to your right. There will be another ledge projecting from under the sliding ramp you are facing. Do a running jump and direct the jump so that you land on this ledge. No falling allowed.

After you land on the ledge go left. You will eventually come to a ladder going up. Unfortunately the floor leading to this ladder is a trap with nice pointy spikes below. Run over the collapsible floor and get to the ladder as fast as you can and start climbing up. When you reach the top you will find ... hey ... there is nowhere to go :)

Note: Save your game while you are on the ladder. You might as well get used to the fact that there are going to be even more deadlier traps towards the end of the game and you will frequently want to save your game when you are on a ladder to avoid going through all the traps and tricks again. I mention this for only one reason, if you save your game while Lara hanging from a ladder make sure you have the CTRL key pressed till the level loads up or Lara will let go of the ladder.

Ok, in the first place make sure Lara's hands are holding on to the fourth or fifth rung of the ladder (starting from the top) and simply do a backflip (if you miss then Lara lands on the spikes on the groud floor, messy stuff). Once you have back-flipped successfully turn around and you will be next to a switch. Pull the switch to open the cage with the mask. Slide down the ramp, going towards the cage, and jump on to the ledge. Enter the cage, take the mask and make your way to the pit in the middle of the floor which was, till recently, filled with water. You may or may not want to explore an opening on the ground floor. Put your back to the stairs that you used to enter this area and run to the top-right corner, there is a small opening go through it and follow it around, there is a medikit in there (or something, sorry, don't remember :))

Do a safety drop in the now-dry-formerly-filled-with-water pit and take the opening going out of there. As you turn right around a corner be careful that you don't fall into a pit with spikes. A running jump over this pit is an easy job but if you want you can walk to edge of the pit and do a side flip. On the other side of the pit go left till you reach a closed gate. To the right of the gate is the lock. Use the mask you have on the lock to open the gates and save your game. As you run past the gate a lot of boulders will come rolling down, immediately do a 180 degree flip and run like hell in the reverse direction, at the end of the passage turn right and do a running jump over the spike pit once again and wait for things to quite down. (You can alternatively dodge the boulders with side flips without retreating a single step. Difficult but it can be done).

Once the boulders are at rest, jump the spike-pit and go through the gates. If you keep going straight you will be running up some snow covered steps leading to a temple like structure. Right now the doors to the temple are closed, in fact they lead to the exit. At the foot of these steps going up, look left, there is an opening, remember this. Now, turn right and go towards the left side of the temple (Lara's right, temple's left :)) A couple of bad guys show up so be ready with your guns and first aid kits. Once the bad guys are dead, keep going right till you turn a corner, you will now have your back turned to the temple. Going ahead there will be a lock on the right wall with a door next to it (obviously). Stick close to wall on the right and run to the end till you reach the ladder. Climb up and hoist on to the ledge on the right, the ledge has some ammo you might want to collect. Make your way back to the stairs leading to the temple.

Remember the opening you saw sometime back? Ok, position yourself to make a running jump and grab to this opening. As you go through this opening notice the path that is going straight away from where you stand, and make a mental note of it. Right now it is locked, in other words, go left. Once on the floor watch out for bad guys and go towards the ice covered pool of water with a huge bowl like thing suspended above it. Keep your weapons ready, this is going to be tough.

Once all the bad cats and bad people are dead go right from the frozen pool of water. As you enter the next room, look to your left for a ledge which you can climb (there is only one) and get on top of it. From here drop down to the other side and dive into the water. Collect the mask lying under the pool and make your way back to the stairs going up to the temple.

Go towards the left of the temple (Lara's right if you face the temple doors) and turn right at the corner. You have already seen the lock here so use the mask to unlock the door and go in.

Kind of dark in here, isn't it? As you emerge through this door you will fall down on a platform. Go left till you reach the wall and turn right. Be careful to avoid the gaps in the floor and keep hopping till you reach a platform with a switch on the wall to your left. Save your game. By now you must have heard the Yeti's growling and howling. Well they are in their cages and this switch OPENS those cages. When you pull the switch the cage doors will drop down filling up the gaps that you just hopped over to reach the switch. Go back towards the door to this area. Remember the first encounter with the Yeti? It takes only ONE well placed grenade to get rid of them. There are four Yetis in here, kill them all any way you want but the grenades are faster, but whatever you do make sure you don't fall from the platform you are standing on currently, if you need room to move around take the stairs to the ground floor.

Once the Yetis are dead go to the wall with the switch you just pulled. Facing the switch go towards your right. You will reach a block that can be moved. Start pushing (or pulling) it towards the the switch. As you move the block towards the switch look for the FIRST opening along the wall with the switch. The opening will have a cage door raised up. Pull/push the block into this opening till the block is flush with the wall with the switch and save your game.

Use a similar opening to go into the dark room behind the switch. Inside you will find another switch, use it (if the block you just moved is not in the right position you will be trapped in here and will have to reload the game from the last saved position :))

Exit this room and go to the main area with the temple. A couple of bad guys await you as you emerge from the dark room so keep those guns working.

When the bad guys are dead you must once again go into the opening that leads to the frozen pool of water with the bowl suspended over it. This time however go straight along the path that you ignored earlier. Keep following this path till you have crossed the rope bridge, after the rope bridge move with caution as you go through the door. When you emerge through the door look up, another boulder trap. You know what to do, trigger the boulders and jump back and left as they rumble by. Then follow the path going up towards where the boulders were and at the top turn left and keep climbing and running till you come to a room with a hole in the floor overlooking a pool of water. Dive.

Fish. Biting fish. Quickly swim towards the opening under the water and as you come into the next area swim left and then right till you can climb out of the water on to a platform to your right. Dispatch those annoying fishes (if you haven't already).

Watch out for the stalactites and also watch out for a ladder going up. This ladder is difficult to locate unless you are walking backwards :) In any case keep looking over your left shoulder as you walk along and you ought to be able to see a ladder soon enough. The ladder goes up to the second secret of the level. Climb up to the top and slide to your right while holding the ladder and let go. You MUST land on the ramp sliding downwards. As soon as you hit the ramp press the jump key to land on another sliding ramp, press the jump key again. Time these two jumps well and there is that dragon thingy. Take the dragon and follow the ladder back to the ground floor.

Keep going away from the ladder as far as you can then jump to your left and into the water. Swim away from the place your were standing on and towards the upper right corner. Climb out of the water and run along keeping the water to your right. You will reach a pair of doors to your left. Put your back to the doors and look across the water. You will see a short pillar. Run into the water towards this pillar and climb it. From this pillar jump and grab the ladder directly in front and climb up.

As earlier, stop three or four rungs below the top of the ladder and back-flip. You will land on the ledge with a switch on one end, use the switch to open the doors you just saw. Make your way back to the doors and enter into the room beyond them. Watch out for the enemy. As you enter the door and turn right you will see a square block sitting in the middle of the room. Circle-strafe (hey, that is for Quake :)) around this block, on one side there is a switch, pull it.

This switch opens the doors that lead to the temple like structure you saw at the beginning of the level. Since the doors are open make your way back to stairs leading up to them.

Enter these doors carefully. You want to avoid the pit they lead to so stop at the edge and jump+grab the edge above. If you fall down, well, there is good news and bad news. The good news is the pit below has lots of goodies you can collect, the bad news is the pit below also has lots of wild cats prowling around. The choice is yours but in either case you have to jump this pit.

After you clear this jump note four things:

• immediately infront of you there is a ramp going up leading to some boulders. Trap number 1.
• to your left is another ramp going up and leading to another set of boulders. Trap number 2. to your right is a wall that looks all cracked up but you cant demolish it
• every where around there are openings that lead to the pit below.

Ok, the primary objective here is to make the boulders on the left ramp come tumbling down so that they smash the wall to your right. The trick is simple. First run straight towards the ramp immediately in front of you. Trigger the boulders, back-flip, side-flip to the right. Now run up the ramp going away from the cracked wall, trigger the boulders, back-flip, side-flip to the right (be careful while side flipping so that you don't end up going down one of the holes leading to the pit below. Once the boulders have stopped rolling go through the passage that was opened by smashing the cracked wall you noticed earlier.

Enter the next room and stop at the door and examine the floor. There will be two floor-plates (you know, like the ones they have in Quake :)). To clear the next puzzle and trap you must get to know these floor-plates well. The right one opens a door that you cannot see, the left one opens a door that is in the far wall, slightly to the left, you can see this door. BOTH these doors are timed. For a start, run over the left one and approach the door. The critical thing here is to JUMP into the room and not waste time CLIMBING through the door. Do it a couple of times till you are good at it. Once you jump through this door - STOP!

The floor is covered with spikes and you don't have time to WALK through them and you can't run through them, solution, do a running jump over them. The door in the opposite corner is opened by the right floor-plate you saw earlier. So the way out is this, run (non-stop) over the right plate, the left plate, jump into the first door, angle to the right, jump over the spikes, go left through open door. If you don't make it go right from the first door and use another door to your right that opens as you approach it and try again.

In the meantime, we might as well get the third secret of the level. Run over the first floor-plate and jump through the door and stop and look to your left. Hmm, funny looking wall that, in fact it is a ladder, climb up time, go left and collect the dragon. Back to the spike floor, use the other door to exit this room and then try to get past both timed doors before they close.

Beyond the second timed door the path ends abruptly at the mouth of a REALLY deep pit. Make sure you stop before the edge, then do a standing jump grab to the ladder infront of you. Climb a long way down and follow the passage to the exit.

We will next visit The Ice Palace.

Jitender Saan G10@Doubt.Com
http://www.lwbbs.net/userpage/g10/index.htm