Level 1 - Caves

Ok, lets get going.

Do a running jump-grab to the ladder and climb up. Flip the switch you find there and dive into the water and pull the striped lever you find there.

Climb up to the only place that you can and get ready to kill some bad guys. You are now in the room with two platforms with two hooks swinging atop each of them.

Do a standing-jump-grab to the right edge of the right platform. Climb up, turn left and jump-grab to the left hand platform and from there turn right and jump to the other side of the room. A few bad guys materialize, put them to sleep.

Following the corridor you come to a room with a long downward slide. Walk to the middle of the slide and look down. There is a hole there. Well that hole has the Secret #1 of the level. You can't come back to get it so if you want it slide backwards and fall into the hole.

Save the game, the next jump is tricky. Climb out and slide downwards facing the acid pool and at the last moment jump and grab the ledge. Needless to say, if you fall, you fail.

Go left from here and you are at the bottom of the longest ladder you have probably seen. Climb all the way up and take the passage to the right side and you will reach a room with a hole in the floor. Do a safety drop into the hole keeping the entrance to this room on your left. Keep the action key pressed as you slide down. When Lara is hanging on to the edge, let go and immediately press the action key again (you have done this at the beginning of the Opera House level).

From this edge climb up and shoot the bad guy. If you go right you will reach a door with a Blue lock on it, since you don't have the key turn around and run to the other end of the platform. Keep looking at the left wall and you will see a niche in the wall with something blue nestled inside it. Max your health, align yourself to the middle of this niche, and do a running jump - you are to use the damaged railing on the edge of the platform you are standing on. In the niche, grab the Blue Card and jump out, take the opening you see on the left wall. This leads back to the long ladder you have already used. Follow the path to the your way back to the long ladder and use the Blue Card to open the door.

Go left and start eliminating the resistance. Be careful of a guy with a flame thrower since there is no water nearby to help you incase Lara catches fire. You are basically in a square corridor with a central structure with closed doors. The outer walls of this square corridor have two doors with valves on them (look like steering wheels attached to doors :)) and are colored in yellow stripes. Well since we went left when we entered this area open the first yellow striped door you encounter and keep weapons at ready.

When you come the room beyong the passage you will notice four things

a block
a door that is locked
a platform with a hook on it that cannot be reached
a buzz saw sitting tight over the Red Card on the other side of the pool of water

Push the block away from the door to reveal a circuit board with a missing 'Chip'. Hmmm. Dive into the water and make your way to the tunnel in the left hand bottom. WHOA! The scuba-suit-ed guys are shooting so you can:

use your harpoon gun to kill the scuba-bad-guys
coax them out of the tunnel, climb out of the water and give it to them with whatever weapon you want

Well take the underwater tunnel again when the bad guys are dead and keep going till you reach a striped level. Pull it, about turn and swim in such a pattern that you take all the first right turns you encounter till you reach another striped lever. After pulling this one continue down the same path making two rights turns and then a left turn and ... tadaaa... you are back where you started.

Climb out of the water and go back to the square corridor, go left again and open the second yellow striped door. Keep going with weapons drawn killing bad guys and bad dogs. When they are dead run past the launch pad for choppers and you find yourself in a room with two fire pads and two switches. Needless to say, they are timed. This is what you do.

Use the switch on the right to put out the nearer fire pad, run into the corridor and fall into the small hole, flip 180 degrees, grab the M16 Machine Gun (YEAH YEAH YEAH! :)), climb out and exit before the fire restarts.

Wait for the fire pad to ignite and when it does, use the switch on your right, sideways flip to the switch on the left, pull it, run into the corridor, leap across the hole, run to the end of the corridor, grab the 'Chip' and quickly run back while the fire is out and make your way back to the room with the pool of water and use the 'Chip' with the circuit board.

Enter the new passage and be prepared for a fight. This room also has Secret #2. As you enter the room you will notice some large yellow colored drums. Run to the bright colored control panel next to one of these drums and as you approach it, it will swing back revealing a room behind. Go in there and pull the switch on the right wall. Come out of there and dive into the water, well the switch you just pulled opened the doors to the nice little dragon in the middle of the floor. Grab the dragon and notice the entrance to a rather wide tunnel. Grab some air and then starting following this submerged highway till you can again surface for air.

You will encounter some more scuba-bad-guys and its your choice if you want to harpoon them right away or climb out of the water at the other end and shoot em like the rest (it is a good idea to save on your harpoon gun ammo cause you are gonna need it real bad in the next level :))

Well, when you surface in the next open area, look for the low ledge - there is only one - from where you can climb out of the water. If the baddies are not dead kill them from here. Turn around and climb up to the next level and pull the switch you find and it will open the door in the room where you used the 'Chip' with the circuit board. Swim through the underwater tunnel again and make your way back to the room with the circuit board.

Enter the door and pull the switch to make the platform with the hook hanging on it to come close to the edge of the pool with water. Jump and grab this platform and then jump across to the other side of the pool avoiding the buzz-saw. Don't fuss about the Red Card you cant get it till the buzz-saw is switched off. In the wall behind the buzz-saw is another circuit board that needs another 'Chip'.

Go to the right and climb the blocks that you see, behind the blocks is a dark passage that leads to a switch. Pull this switch and you will see that the room with the two fire pads now has a big square hole in the floor and a new supply of bad guys and bad dogs.

Go back to the square corridor (where you encountered the guy with the flame thrower - in case you had forgotten :)).

Make your way to the room with the two fire pads, kill the baddies and drop into the hole. Keep following the dark passage ways and keep doing safety-drops till you arrive in a room with bad guys. FIRST take out the guy with the flame-thrower then kill the one with the club. The guy with the club will leave behind another 'Chip'. Collect it and go back to the buzz-saw and use the 'Chip' on the circuit board to switch off the buzz-saw and get the Red Card.

The lock of the Red Card is in the same room where you found the second 'Chip' so go back to that place and use the Red Card. Follow the corridor till you can drop into knee deep water on your left. Keep going down this passage climbing out and jumping into knee-deep water till you arrive in a room with a square staircase that goes downwards hugging the walls. Bad guys will come running up as you try to move down, so kill them and go down the stairs.

If you want Secret #3 then DO NOT go to the body lying in the middle of the floor, instead stick to the wall on your left and go into the door that you find. Beyond the door go left and get the last dragon.

Approach the body to finish this level and enjoy the cut-scene.

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