| Welcome to the
Temple of Xian and probably the biggest level of the game
in terms of size, traps and acrobatics. Save your game as
often as you can because this level is plagued with
lethal traps and you might want to avoid having to go
through them again and again. Run straight from
where you start and you will soon a pedestal dead ahead.
On it lies the Dagger of Xian, the ultimate prize of
Lara's quest and this game. A piece of cake.
Unfortunately as you come close to it the floor drops
away from below you and you land on a ramp, sliding
downwards. Don't worry and enjoy the ride, you will hear
some rumbling as a boulder or two comes rolling down.
Keep sliding and you won't take any damage. As you keep
sliding Lara will occassional hop down to another ramp
and start sliding in a new direction. There is no way you
can stop this. However pay attention to the ramps. As
soon as you notice that Lara is sliding on ramps that
have water flowing over them, make sure that Lara is
sliding backwards. If you are sliding forward hit
ALT to jump and in mid-air press DEL to flip, this will
change the direction you are facing. Continue sliding
backwards and keep the CTRL key pressed. The water
covered ramps will take Lara to the mouth of a rather
deep water-wall. Keeping the CTRL key pressed will
prevent Lara from diving into the water below and instead
leave her hanging on to edge of the water-fall, which is
the only way you can get the first secret
of this level. Once Lara is hanging on to the edge shimmy
left and pull up into the opening and claim the dragon.
Turn around and walk to the edge. Look down
and to the left. You will see a reddish colored ledge
just above the pool of water. Dive into the water and
make your way as fast as you can to this ledge and climb
out. Draw your weapons and kill the fish in the water.
Turn around and you will see a ladder going up from here
and a golden lock next to the ladder. Remember this.
Dive into the water and swim away from the
platform going through a big underwater opening. In the
next area swim to the left and surface. You will now be
infront of a temple of sorts and to right of the temple
is another locked door with a silver lock. As you
approach the steps leading to the temple a couple of wild
cats will come sniffing around. Kill 'em. Facing the
temple go left and locate the spring-board next to the
temple wall. Face the temple (the water will be to your
right shoulder). WALK on to the spring-board and you will
be catapulted on to the roof of the temple. Go right and
follow the ledge you are standing on. After two left
turns you will find a switch in the far wall. Do a safety
drop to the floor and watch out for those wicked birds.
The switch you just pulled opened a
trap-door in the cieling above the ladder next to the
gold lock you examined earlier. Swim back to the ladder
and start climbing. At the top walk casually with guns
drawn. You will soon hear some weird scratchy-scratchy
sounds. One word: spiders. Dispatch them as they appear.
As you emerge from the narrow corridor look down. A pit
filled with boiling hot lava.
Turn around, hop back and keep the CTRL key
pressed to hang on to the ledge. Shimmy left and pull up.
Use the ladders and cracks in a similar fashion till you
reach the lowest platform (closest to the lava). When you
reach the bottom put your right shoulder to the cracks
that you have used to shimmy and your back to the lava.
Hop back and hang on to the edge. Shimmy right and
collect the second secret
of the level. Shimmy back to the left and pull up, turn
around and walk down the path going away from the cracks
you climbed down from. Towards the end of this path,
there will be a pillar to your left with a ladder. Climb
this ladder to the top and follow the corridor till you
come to a wall with a crack running through it. Hang on
to this crack and shimmy right and pull up and save your
game.
In the next room, walk to the edge and do a
standing jump to the ramp directly infront. As soon as
Lara lands on the ramp hit the jump key again to land on
a ledge next to a spike trap. The more accurately you
time your jumps the easier it is to clear this room (and
hey, if you have reached this far in the game you ought
to have good timing :)).
Move away from the spikes and walk to the
edge. Look down. A slender platform runs away from below
you towards a hole in the far wall. If you look carefully
you will see the lava through this platform. That
is because the whole platform is collapsible. You have
two choices on how to get past this trap:
- Drop down and start running, as you
approach the end of the platform hit the jump key
just a little before the end of the
platform to go through the hole in the opposite
wall.
- Drop down and start running and stop
when you are exactly one moveable block's width
from the edge (all the moveable blocks in the
game are of the same size, it is easier to
measure distance in those terms). After the floor
collapses you will end up on a short pillar in
the middle of the room which also has some ammo
in case you need it. From here, a simple running
jump will take you through the hole in the
opposite wall.
As you jump through the hole into the next
room you will land on a sliding ramp. Jump, you will land
on another sliding ramp. Jump again and hang on to the
ledge. The floor is covered with spikes so no mistakes
are allowed. Pull up and use the switch to open the doors
to the temple you have already seen. Go away from the
spiked floor and follow the passage till you can dive
into water. Swim back to the entrance of the temple.
Go through the temple doors (left or right,
doesn't matter). The main hall will have statues (holding
swords) aligned along the corridor. One of these statues
has some ammo lying infront of it. Walk carefully in case
you want to pick it up. As soon as you come close the
statue will start swinging its sword so just be cautious.
Anyway, facing this statue (this is the only one that
moves) go towards the wall to your left. Notice that
there are two doors, the one to your right is open and
the one on the left is locked. Enter the one on the
right.
Follow the path to the edge and you will be
looking into a room filled with sliding ramps and lava at
the bottom. There are no flat ledges in this room, no
places to which Lara can hang-on, nothing. However, like
all other traps, it only looks impossibly
difficult. Keep Lara looking in the same direction as she
was when walking towards the edge. Save your game and
jump to the sliding ramp dead ahead. As soon as Lara
begins to slide hit the jump key again. Keep the CTRL key
pressed and keep repeating this procedure. Remember that
you are not to stop anywhere. Keep hitting alt to
keep the sliding to a minimum and Lara will automatically
change directions and keep jumping. Keeping the CTRL key
pressed will leave Lara hanging on to a flat ledge after
clearing all the jumps. Voila, you are through. Start
clearing the obstacles to go to the opening in the left
corner.
As you walk through the corridor there will
be a switch right infront of you. It is, yes, another
trap (told you, this level is full of 'em :)). WALK
towards the switch and the floor will drop away and Lara
will drop on a sliding ramp. Keep the CTRL and up arrow
key pressed to make sure Lara is sliding at the maximum
speed possible. As soon as the slide ends run like mad to
the switch at the end of the next passage, pull it, flip
around and get the hell out of there. Depending on your
speed you may, or may not, have time to collect the
goodies lying in the room with the switch because as soon
as you move in there two walls with spikes will close in
towards the center.
As you follow the passage after your narrow
escape you will be in a room with steps and ramps going
upwards. The Tomb Raider rule of thumb: if you are about
to run upwards on a ramp, watch out for boulders. Run up
the first ramp to trigger the boulder, jump back and then
jump left. Once the boulder has rolled by continue up the
ramp. Everytime the ramp changes direction a boulder will
come rolling down to crush Lara, so keep hopping out of
its way. It is really easy because there is plenty of
room to jump in any three directions at a time. Starting
from the bottom of the first ramp you have to take two
left turns which will lead you to a ledge you can climb.
From this ledge jump to the next ledge with a ladder
along the wall. As soon as you land on this ledge do
back-flip (or whatever you prefer) to avoid another
boulder. Go back to the ledge and start climbing all the
ladders that you find.
At the top, walk ahead and you will end up
looking into a very dark room. A flare comes in handy at
such times. Drop into the floor and go towards the upper
right corner. Locate and pull the switch. Go left from
here and find the opening (not the one from where you
entered, duh!) and climb up to exit this area. Oh yeah,
there might be some wild cats prowling around. Just
thought I had mention it :)
Walk away from the dark room to the edge of
a pit. This pit has a ladder going down and a swinging
blade moving in arcs from a corner. Put your back to the
pit, move to the extreme left, hop back, hang on to the
edge and let go. At the bottom will be a pair of those
rolling wheels that you have already seen many times.
Your destination is the opening in the upper left corner.
Use simple timing to avoid the wheels and cross this
room.
As you enter the next area look right and
there will be two huge doors that closed. Look left and
there is a switch on the wall. The switch opens the doors
but only for a short time. First dispatch the birds that
come to mess with Lara's pony-tail with their talons. Now
go to the wall with the switch. This part is really too
easy. Just pull the switch, do a 180 degree flip and make
running jumps across the two platforms leading up to the
doors. There is plenty of time so don't worry too much
(except about falling down).
Past the doors you will come to a passage
with a narrow ledge going away from you with bags full of
spikes swinging left and right from the cieling. Again,
timing, timing, timing, nothing but timing. Navigate
through these swinging bags of death to the other end. It
is easier if you do a running jump to your right from the
length of two blocks before the end of this platform.
Past the swinging spikes you will be infront
of a narrow passage with lava at the bottom. There are
switches to the right and left of this passage. First go
to the switch on your right, pull it, jump sideways to
your left, pull the left switch and run down the narrow
passage. Keep running like hell even when you hear the
boulder chasing you. The camera will change its view
dramatically and show Lara running towards the end of the
platform with the boulder chasing Lara. As you come
closer to the end of this platform do a running jump/grab
to the ledge next to the dragon's mouth. (I recommend you
save your game after pulling the two switches just in
case you don't make it in the first attempt).
Pull up on this ledge and pick up the Dragon
Seal. Look left to face another ledge at about the same
height as the one you are standing on. Make a running
jump to reach it. From here start climbing up till you
can go to a room behind the head of the dragon. Watch out
for spiders. In this room there is a switch, pull it and
go to the other end and come out of the room next to the
left side of the dragon's face, collect whatever goodies
are here then go back to the other side of the dragon and
this time climb down all the way till you are on the
lowest platform, just above the lava.
If you look left you will notice that the
platform on which the boulder chased you has been changed
into a series of pillars. There will be a flat pillar,
then a pillar with a sliding ramp and another pillar with
a sliding ramp (both ramps sliding downwards in the same
direction). From where you stand start hopping on the
platforms till the last of the sliding ramp is to your
left. Face this pillar and do a running jump to it. As
soon as Lara lands and begins to slide hit jump again
(you might want to keep the CTRL key pressed to hang on
to the edge in case you jump too soon). Use the slide on
the next pillar to jump to the pillar with the flat top.
From here turn right and and jump to the
ledge along the wall. Go right and walk to the edge and
look down to a shorter pillar. Jump to the short pillar.
Put your back to the wall and look left, there will be a
spring-board. Now put yourself approximately in the
middle of the pillar you are standing on (middle across
length as well as breadth). Face the long platform going
to the dragon's mouth and jump sideways. You will land on
the spring board which will catapult you up into the air
and when you finally return to planet earth you will be
standing on the long platform. There are two things you
can do here:
- Turn your back to the dragon and
keeping the spring-board to your left align
yourself so that you can do a sideways jump to
the spring-board. After making the jump you will
land on a ledge that is flush against the wall
with the spring-board. As soon as you land you
will jear the rumbling of a boulder, hop back and
hang-on to the edge till the boulder has passed
by and pull up.
- Go away from the dragon. Turn left
and face the flat platform at the same height
that is flush against the opposite wall. Do a
running jump from here to that platform and as
soon as you hear the boulder do a back flip back
to the long platform. After the boulder is in the
lava jump back to the platform.
Now put your back to the wall (the dragon to
your right shoulder) and look slightly to the left. There
will be another flat ledge a little higher up. Jump to
this ledge and back flip immediately to avoid another
boulder. Keep jumping like this going towards the
opposite wall. Remember that each new ledge you jump on
means another boulder to avoid. And missing a jump means
a slide all the way to the lava.
Continuing to jump and proceed in this
fashion stop for a moment when you have crossed over to
other side of the long platform. Face the dragon and look
90 degrees to your left and notice:
- Next to the wall will be a row of
flat platforms and slides.
- Next to the above will be a long
sliding ramp going down.
- Next to the above will be another
row of platforms and slides.
You must be standing on a flat platform on
number three above. From this location face the dragon
and then look down and slightly to your left. Far away
down the sliding ramp that lies immediately to your left
is a spring-board. If you can't see the spring-board it
means you still have to go further left. The spring board
leads to the third secret
of this level. Drop on to the sliding ramp making certain
Lara is facing the direction in which she is sliding.
Keep the CTRL and up arrow keys pressed for maximum
speed. The spring-board will launch Lara and land her on
a platform very close to the cieling. Turn right and you
will see the secret dragon. Do a running jump-grab to the
platform, pull over, claim the secret then take the same
path in reverse to get back to the steps from where you
used the spring-board.
Your destination is the upper right corner
so start hopping once again. Watch out for those birds.
Once you have reached the corner enter the opening and
pull out the block from the wall so that you can enter
the passage behing it (you can recognize the block easily
because it is off-color and hence very conspicuous). In
the next passage move carefully and locate the switch
along the wall and pull it.
Save your game and get ready to drop down
the hole in the floor. Make sure that you have positioned
yourself in a such a way that on landing Lara will be
facing the long corridor and not any other direction.
Drop down the hole and run for your life. This is the
closest boulder chase you are going to come across. The
real difficulty however is that the boulder is so close
to Lara you can't see her. So unless you have very
good spatial organization abilities you will have to
control Lara more through experience than through sight.
You have to run straight to the end of the corridor and
turn left into a passage to escape the boulder.
You will end up on a wooden ledge in the
main room of the temple. Kill the cats from above or drop
down and fight fairly :) Once on the floor approach the
two doors again. In case you don't remember the first
time you entered the hall in the temple there were two
doors, left one locked and right one open. This time you
can use the Dragon Seal to open the door on the left. Do
it.
Keep moving along the path and as you did in
the Barkhang Monastery, use the gaps along the corridor
to dodge the rolling wheels. Past the corridor you will
end up in a room with very shallow water and a cieling
covered with spikes that is already descending to crush
Lara. Around room are several switches, however, three
switches are of a different color (green), pull the three
switches as quick as you can. This will open the door on
one of the walls. Run through this door to avoid being
crushed (or punctured) to death.
In the next area climb the short pillar on
the right and from that jump on to the higher pillar on
the left then turn right and face the water. Save your
game. Dive into the water and swim forward while going
down towards the bottom. Let us do a bit of exploring
first. As you go down keep an eye out to your left and
you will soon see an entrance that leads to a long
underwater tunnel. Go further down to the right you will
see a switch, let us call this Switch A. To the right of
Switch A is a closed door, let us call it Door A. Get
some air and this time swim into the long tunnel. Mid-way
there is a switch on the left wall, let us call it Switch
B. Going past Switch B you reach a corner. Turn right and
there is a metal gate and behind the gate is another
switch, Switch C.
Now lets tackle this puzzle.
The next room is full of spiked walls that
start closing in as soon as you step into the room.
However there is more than sufficient time. Run in,
quickly reach the switch in the wall, pull it, flip
around and go to the opposite corner of the room and drop
through the hole in the floor. Whew! As soon as you take
the plunge a very strong current of water will push Lara
a long way through a passage and when she stops, behold,
a gold key, just waiting to be picked up. Collect the key
and swim out of the tunnel and surface for much needed
air.
You are now in the pool below the water fall
which you encountered at the beginning of the level.
Remember the platform with the gold lock and the ladder
going up? Go to that platform and use the gold key. This
will open two metal gates right next to the gold lock but
under the water. Jump into the water and enter this gate.
Watch out for the fish. Take the first right and then
turn again to go through an opening in the right wall. In
the next room there are a couple of pillars. Go behind
the first pillar from the entrance and pull the lever
there. Exit this room and swim straight and up (going
away from the entrance) towards the bright light. Surface
and pull up. And save your game.
Draw your guns (I prefer the Uzis) and enter
the dark green tunnel. Soon you will hear those
scratchy-scratchy sounds again. One word: spiders. Stick
to the left wall and continue down the tunnel. Soon you
will hear a different and louder kind of
scratchy-scratchy sounds. Two words: BIG spiders. Very,
by golly, big spiders :)
Eliminate these spiders and then move along
the left wall till you come to a rather wide room with a
very tall pillar in the middle. If you look up you will
see a strange sort of structure hanging from the ceiling
that is glowing and fading in shades of green.
Anyway, after emerging into this room start
moving around but stay close to the left wall. Keep a
sharp lookout (and a flare in the hand won't be a bad
idea either) and you will soon come to a short pillar in
the left wall which you can climb (I am afraid I cannot
explain this better because there are no reference
points, just keep moving along the left wall and your
will find it). Climb this pillar, turn around and jump to
the next higher pillar, again turn around and jump to the
next ledge at the same height. Save your game.
From this ledge face the big pillar in the
middle of the room and look left. You will see a platform
that is brighter than the surroundings. That is where you
are headed. Turn left to face this platform. Put Lara's
right to the right edge of the ledge she is standing on.
You cannot make a direct jump to the bright platform.
Between you and the bright platform is the corner of a
wall running all the way up and down. Look just a little
to the right of this wall and you should see an
out-cropping which is actually a ledge you can jump on.
If you can't see it try tossing a flare or firing a
grenade. In any case, just aim in such a direction that
after doing a running jump Lara goes past the corner of
the wall but moving as close to the corner as possible.
Run and jump (I still have trouble locating this ledge
despite having played the game six times, everytime I was
forced to make blind jumps. But then I was running in
software mode).
From this ledge you can easily make a
running jump to the well lit platform. As soon as you
land run away from the edge. A big spider will come down
from the darkness and if you are too close to the edge
Lara will fall off. After the spider is dead face the
pillar in the middle of the room. Save your game and do a
running jump to this pillar. From here jump to the next
pillar. From this pillar jump-grab the edge and pull up
into the passage.
Keep moving till you reach the edge over
looking a pool of water and a few pillars sticking out of
the water). Do a running jump-grab to the flat edge of
one of the pillars and climb to the top of the highest
pillar to take the silver key. Dive into the water and
take the opening to swim back to the pool of water under
the waterfall. Make your way to the temple and instead of
going to the temple steps turn right. If you remember
this building had a silver lock (you have seen it the
first time you visited this area). Use the silver key to
open the door and enter.
Navigate around the platform you find
yourself on and then jump and grab the edge as quick as
you can. Watch out for more boulders. Follow the passage
going left and over a rope bridge. You will soon reach a
red colored room, go right in and start climbing the
pillars all the way up. At the top there is a series of
spring-boards, stay away from them. Climb up to the left
(keeping the spring-board to your right) and enter the
room with another rolling-wheel patrolling the corridor.
Again, use simple timing to get past the wheel and jump
on to the ledge beyond. Enter the next room and you will
encounter another rolling-wheel, except that this wheel
isn't rolling. Going past the wheel you emerge from a
door leading to another rope bridge.
Be quick. As soon as you touch that bridge
the wheel behind you will shed all inertia and move
towards Lara with a view to kill. Run to the other end
and take a sharp left at the end to avoid the wheel
(don't make it TOO sharp or you will go over the edge.
Pull the switch in the wall. In the case the wheel has
gone back wait for it to come close to you again. As soon
as it starts rolling back towards the room start running
after it and jump sideways into the room to get out of
its path. Exit this room and navigate around the
rolling-wheel you already avoided before. Now make your
way to the location of the spring-boards.
The spring-boards are arranged at different
heights that keep going higher and higher. You can only
see the first spring board from where you are right now.
Put your back to this spring-board in such a fashion that
doing a back-flip will cause you to land on it. Make sure
that you don't back-flip from a wrong location or Lara's
a goner. If you are standing in the right position then
you must facing the direction in which the spring-boards
incline upwards.
In case Lara's back is touching the platform
with the spring-board, move forwards away from this
platform as far as Lara can go. Save your game,
back-flip, keep the CTRL key pressed and relax. If your
starting position was right Lara will clear the
spring-boards on her own and hang on to a ledge way, way,
way up. Just don't let go of the CTRL key till she has
cleared this area. At the top, pull up and shoot the
birds then jump to the passage going out of there.
You emerge in a room filled with lava except
for a few platforms here and there. Go straight to the
edge of the platform you are standing on and you should
be able to see another sqaure platform to your right. Do
a running jump to reach this platform. If you look at the
wall you will see a lock. We need to get a key for this
lock. Right now save your game. Face the wall with the
lock. Turn left. To your right is a long platform lined
with spiked walls. You must do this fast. Give yourself
room to do a running jump from the platform with the lock
to the passage with the spiked walls. Don't stop for
anything or anyone, keep running but don't go into the
room. As much as possible keep Lara close to the edge on
her left. Towards the end do a running jump to the block
to the left and start climbing those ladders. This trap
has one fatal difference. If you land on the block the
spikes on the walls are long enough to kill Lara, you must
climb the ladder to be clear of the spikes.
Climb to the top and go right while staying
on the ladder. As soon as you are above a platform climb
down to it. Turn around and go through the opening in the
left wall. The next room is also beset with spike traps.
As soon as you enter this room turn right and run to the
end. Do a running jump to grab on to the ladder in front.
Don't run too far and don't jump too late, both will
result in a drop to a spike covered floor.
Climb the ladder and at the top turn right.
The corridor that you are in right now leads to two very
big rooms in opposite directions with each room
containing a large statue of a dragon. Remember this
corridor. Go down to the passage to the other end. Find
and pull the switch and return to the corridor. The door
leading to the dragon on the right is now open. Enter.
You will find yourself on a very high ledge.
Needless to say, falling means death. Turn left and
notice the very tall pillar next to the dragon. Do a
running jump-grab to the ledge in front. Start jumping
from ledge to ledge in a similar fashion till you can
reach the tall pillar. At the top of the pillar is the
key to the lock you saw earlier. From this point simply
jump on to the dragon and slide down its tail all the way
to the ground floor. When you come to a halt after the
slide, face the platform next to the entrance of this
room (from where you jumped to the small square platform
with the lock. Do a running jump to this platform and
then jump to the platform with the lock and use the key
that you have.
Jump back to the platform leading to the
entrance. Turn left so that your back is to the platform
with the lock and at the same time keep Lara as close to
the edge on her right and walk straight to the end. You
should be able to see a metallic square jutting out of
the pillar ahead. Do a running jump-grab to this metallic
square and pull up. Jump across to the ladder and start
climbing.
At the top go to the right and drop off the
ladder on to the ledge below. Turn around and jump to
another ladder and climb to the top. You are now back in
the corridor leading to the two rooms with a dragon in
each. The door to the other dragon in now open so go
through that door.
Once again turn left from the ledge you are
standing on and start making running jump-grabs to the
ledges aligned to the walls. Follow these ledges till you
drop down next to the dragon's mouth. Turn around and
start climbing the ladder towards the exit.
As you climb up you will hear, and soon see,
the clanking of the swinging blades. Climb up till Lara
is two or three rungs below the blade. Press ALT to
back-flip and in mid-air press END to twist Lara and make
her face the opposite direction. Immediately press CTRL
to hang on to the next ladder. Practice this well because
you will have to do it in the next level also. Repeat
this process till you are clear of the blades. Remember
these steps:
- climb till Lara is three-four rungs
below the blade
- press the jump key to back-flip
- in mid-air press END to turn Lara to
face the opposite direction
- press CTRL to make Lara grab and
hang-on to the opposite ladder or ledge or edge.
Once past the blades keep climbing up and to
the right. Pull up and exit this level.
I told you, this IS a big level :)
Jitender Saan G10@Doubt.Com
http://www.lwbbs.net/userpage/g10/index.htm
|
