LEVEL 14: THE GREAT PYRAMID
Kills: 6 Items: 31 Save Crystals: 4
(PlayStation only) Secrets: 3*
*NOTE ON SECRETS:
Even if you find it and pick up the items, the third secret
in this level may not register in some versions of the game.
This is an unfortunate bug.
Objectives: Kill the big beastie. Find Natla, who
has apparently survived her fall, and bump her off as well.
Then get out of town.
Walkthrough: Quite obviously, the first thing
you'll need to do is take out the
humongous, legless mutant without letting it grab
Lara or knock her off the platform. There are a number of
strategies you can employ to do this. Some prefer to use the
Uzis and run or side flip from corner to corner as the
mutant lumbers after. Some prefer the shotgun, since fewer
rounds are needed to bring the creature down (about 800
rounds of Uzi fire, versus about 25 shotgun blasts).
Needless to say, you don't want to hop around too much or
you'll risk going over the edge. And, for the most part you
don't have to, since the mutant moves pretty slowly.
Also, as Mark R. points out, while fighting the mutant
you can take a running jump at its right shoulder (on the
left when facing it) and Lara will sail straight through.
Once on its other side, roll and start shooting again. It'll
take a little while for it to turn around to face Lara.
While it's maneuvering, you can jump or run to the side or,
if you have room, back up and take another run at it. Just
watch out for those claws. If Lara stands too long in front
of it, the mutant can easily snag Lara in mid-air and toss
her around like a rag doll.
Another trick is to hang from the edge of the platform
and wait for the mutant to go back to the door. When it
does, pull up and shoot at it until it approaches, holster
the guns, and hop back to dangle again. Sometimes this takes
a while, and if you hang in the wrong place, it'll reach
under and grab Lara. The best spots seem to be the corners
farthest from the door (northeast and southeast), with
Lara's back to the side (north and south) walls. The
northeast corner is farthest from the mutant's favorite
spot. So if you hang here, and wait for it to go back to its
corner, it then takes the beast longer to reach you and you
get more shots in each time. If you're hanging and the
mutant just won't move away, try traversing to the side of
the platform near the rear wall, then back to the corner and
it'll back off. When you do this, you may lose a little
health—presumably as a result of the mutant's stomping on
Lara's hands. But, as long as you don't stop except at the
corners, it won't grab Lara. (Thanks to Sharon for the
hanging tips.)
If you're playing on the PC or Macintosh, I also
recommend saving your game in the middle of the fight if
you're doing well. Then you won't have as far to go if you
do get killed and have to reload. (Use a new slot, though,
just in case something goes wrong.) When it starts to keel
over you can stop shooting. Soon after, the mutant explodes
and the exit door opens. Pick up the Uzi
clips in each of the 4 corners of the platform (6
sets in all) and head for the door.
PASSAGEWAYS WITH MOVABLE BLOCKS: Go forward, then
left, and slide down the ramp. Pass the
movable block in the alcove and
go down the next ramp. (The sound of chomping blades is
audible from somewhere above.) Continue to
another movable block. Push it
3 times. Go up the ramp on the right and around the corner
to reach the back side of the movable block you passed
earlier. Push it once. Then go around the right side of the
block and climb on top of it.
Turn around and take a standing jump to grab the ledge
ahead. Pull up into a hallway with
break-away tiles over spikes,
as well as chomping blades.
(PlayStation users get a save crystal
here.) Stand at the edge of the break-away floor and listen
to the blades. Start to run through the blades on the second
"clang," or just as they begin to open. Continue forward and
around the corner.
Don't go down the next ramp. Instead turn right into a
corridor with gray and white tiles. Follow it to the bottom
and push the movable block
once. Follow the gray-and-white hallway back to the previous
hallway, turn right and go down the ramp you didn't take
earlier. Here you'll see a red door and a switch that's too
high to reach. Drop down and go forward to the rag doll
block you just pushed from behind. Climb over it and push it
beneath the switch. Turn around and follow the passage on
the right. Come back down the ramp until you're standing on
the block you just moved. Throw the switch to open the red
door.
ROOM WITH LAVA STREAM & DRAWBRIDGE: Go through it
into a room with sandy colored slopes and a
lava stream running down the
center. Straight ahead across the lava is a doorway you
can't reach yet. There's a drawbridge spanning this gap, but
it's down at the moment. For now, take a standing jump to
the first flat spot on right side of the tan slope. Take
another standing jump forward to the next flat spot. Now
take a running jump to the next. (Be sure to set up this
jump by walking forward to the little "lip" where the next
floor tile juts up a bit. Then hop back before taking the
running jump. Otherwise, Lara can stub her toe on that
jutting floor tile and do a standing jump instead of a full
running jump and end up in the lava.)
Don't jump across the lava yet. Turn around and you'll
see that the drawbridge has now been raised over the lava.
It is on a timer but not a particularly fast one. You have
about 40 seconds to get across the bridge before it
collapses again. Do the same jumps in reverse, with the last
standing jump landing you on the bridge. Turn right and run
through the doorway into a cave. This is
SECRET #1, the reward a
large medipak,
magnum clips and a box of shotgun
shells.
Use the switch twice
to raise and lock one section of the bridge in place. Take a
running jump across the lava stream back to the entrance.
Then repeat the jumps across the flat spots on the sandy
colored slope. When you reach the last flat spot on the
right side, jump across the lava and enter the tunnel there.
NARROW TUNNEL WITH BOULDER TRAPS: There's a
boulder at the top of the slope
ready to roll. Advance cautiously up the slope. As soon as
the boulder starts to come down, roll and run down and to
the right into the safety of the doorway. Go back up the
ramp where the boulder came from. Turn right and go up a
short ramp. The next long ramp is another
boulder trap. This one is a
little faster, so either run up the slope, roll and take
running jumps down the slope, cutting to the left at the
bottom, or, hop backwards up the slope and start running
down as soon as you hear the boulder begin to roll. Continue
up the slope to the top and follow the passageway to a
break-away floor tile. Step on
it to break it, then hop back. If Lara has less than one
quarter of her health bar left, use a medipak. Then safety
drop into the Scion room below.
SCION ROOM: Shoot the SCION. This opens the door
opposite the Scion pedestal and sets off a series of
tremors. The quake won't damage Lara unless it breaks your
concentration and she falls or something. Just keep going.
(There's also a save crystal in
the PS1 version.)
Exit through the small doorway opposite the Scion
pedestal. This leads back to the TIMED DRAWBRIDGE room from
the previous level, but now the bridge is locked in place.
There are 2 mutants on the
walkways to the left and right. Step out to get their
attention, then kill them from the relative safety of the
doorway. Or, drop down onto the black rocks below the right
side of the bridge. Just watch out for the
lava on the left.
If you want all the kills, cross the bridge to find a
third mutant in the fleshy
hallway on the other side. That hall now comes to a dead end
a bit farther along. There's also a dead-end passage near
the switch that used to open the door to the Scion room, but
there's nothing inside. Drop from the bridge to the black
rocks below. Find the opening in the floor near the south
wall and drop down through it.
GAUNTLET OF TRAPS: Turn to face the fleshy wall
with the horizontal crevice. Take a running jump to grab
that crevice. Then, if you have the PC or Macintosh game,
you can disable the flying darts
by saving and reloading the game. Be sure to hold Action as
the game loads or Lara will fall. After reloading, the darts
will have stopped. Traverse to the right. Drop to the
slippery slope and immediately back flip onto the flat spot
behind to avoid sliding into the lava.
Unless you've disabled the darts, as soon as Lara lands, hop
back out of the way.
Go through the doorway, pick up the
Uzi clips on the left and walk down the right side of
the slope. This will trigger a boulder,
which rolls down the left side to land in the
lava pool below the
swinging blade. Once it does,
walk down to the blade. Stand as close to it as possible and
take a standing jump past it as it swings to the left. Walk
forward through the spikes,
continue on between the lava pits,
go around the corner and then walk to the top of the ramp on
the left. Ahead are three squares of
break-away tile. Position Lara at the front edge of
the ramp near the middle. Take one walking step back from
the top edge of the ramp. Then take a standing jump forward
to land on the leftmost break-away tile. Immediately side
flip to the right to land on the right tile, then jump
forward to the ledge.
CONCEALED CREVICE ABOVE LAVA POOL: Continue to the
next room. Here you'll find a lava pool
with 3 tall, angled blocks standing in it. On a ledge above
the far side of the pit you can just make out some items.
This is where you're headed, but jumping on the blocks won't
get you there. Instead, you'll need to traverse along a
nearly invisible crevice in the left wall. It doesn't look
like a crack you can grab, but if you look farther to the
right, you can see where it widens.
Turn left, so the lava pool is on Lara's right and walk
forward until Lara touches the wall. Take one hop back, then
sidestep as far as possible to the right so Lara's right
foot is at the edge of the pit. Now turn about 10 degrees to
the right so Lara is facing the wall just above and to the
right of the edge. Take a standing jump to grab the
horizontal seam in the wall. Traverse to the right all the
way over the lava pit and drop down into
SECRET #2. On this ledge
you'll find 3 large medipaks and
some Uzi clips.
To get down, walk to the edge above the lava and face the
angled pillars below. Take a standing jump to the long
sloped block and hold the Jump key to immediately back flip
and land on the block behind (where PS1 players will find
another save crystal). Turn
around, walk to the edge and take a standing jump to grab
the crevice. Traverse to the right. If you like, you can
drop onto the solid block and survey the situation. Just be
careful not to drop onto the
break-away tiles.
(NOTE: If you're in a hurry or
aren't interested in the secret, you can continue by taking
a standing jump from the first ledge above the lava pit to
the first angled block. Hold the Jump key to hop to the next
pillar and the next. Release Jump before you land on the
third pillar. Walk to the edge and then take a standing jump
to grab the crevice. Traverse to the right and drop.)
GAUNTLET OF TRAPS (PHASE 2): Ahead is a
combination trap involving a concealed
spike pit, a pool of lava,
a swinging blade and a
rolling boulder. To get through
without losing any health, first traverse along the crevice
as far as you can to the right. Lara will be hanging above
the right edge of the first break-away
tile concealing the spike pit below. Release the
Action key to drop onto the collapsing tiles. As Lara drops,
immediately press and hold Jump + Right. This will cause
Lara to side flip to the right twice, and the boulder will
roll past without harming her. Then you can take your time
to set up a run past the swinging blade and come through
unscathed.
(NOTE: Several people have sent
tips on getting through this area. I prefer the method
above, which was discovered by several players
independently. Shared credit goes to Haydon and Lindsay. He
was the first to tell me about it and, at 10 years old,
she's the youngest raider to send in a correction.)
Beyond the swinging blade, there's another slope with a
boulder perched at the top. Run
down the slope into the alcove on the right, ignoring the
small medipak on the ground for
now. Once the boulder lands you can take a standing jump or
a side flip between the boulder and the corner of the
doorway, get the medipak and jump back the same way.
The next trap involves a slope with a
boulder behind, a
swinging blade ahead, and
lava pits on either side and at
the bottom. Stand to the left or right of center facing down
the slope. (It's easier to avoid the blade if you don't
slide down right in the middle.) Wait for the blade to swing
all the way to the opposide side from where Lara is
standing. Then step off and slide down the slope. Jump
without grabbing at the very end of the slope to pass the
blade and land on the flat block ahead. (If you wind up
grabbing the edge of the block, you won't have time to pull
up before being squished by the boulder.)
Hop down on the left and go through the doorway. In this
room there's a small medipak on
the ground ahead, several lava flows
and a door on the far side. Run forward to the medipak. Stop
and pick it up. The lava flows out behind Lara, but she's
safe here. Take a standing jump forward then run into the
doorway. The remaining lava flows should miss you. Pull the
switch to open the door.
Enter and go to the right. The door closes behind you.
Continue to the north end of the passage and pick up some
Uzi clips. Turn around and run
forward past the door, but stop just at the edge of the next
lava pit. A
boulder will roll down and pass overhead. Take a
standing jump to grab the opposite edge of the lava pit.
Wait for another boulder to roll
past above, then pull up.
Continue to the next room, which contains a pool of water
and a bunch of torch pillars.
Relax! It's not anything like the Palace Midas torches.
You'll be fine. Stand on either side of the first pillar
(not in the center). Face the next pillar and make sure Lara
is lined up squarely with the pillar edge. Take 5 standing
jumps in a row to clear all of the pillars. (If you do fall
or accidentally jump into the water, climb out below the
starting point and try again.)
(NOTE: Here's an alternate
method for this sequence. Position Lara at either side of
the first ramp, walk up to the edge, hop back and take a
running jump past the first pillar to grab the edge of the
second. Pull up and take a standing jump past the second
flame. Walk to the edge, hop back and take another running
jump over the next flame to grab the edge of the ramp on the
other side. As long as you stay at the outside edge of the
blocks, Lara won't take any damage. Thanks to Ian T. for
this tip.)
TALL STRUCTURE ABOVE TINY POOL: In the next room
there is a red-and-gold structure with a
swinging blade in the middle and
break-away tiles below the
blade. Walk down the slope and stand facing the break-away
tiles. Hop back, then take two more steps back (walking).
Take a running jump and continue to hold jump and forward.
Lara will land on the edge of the break-away tiles then take
a running jump off of them into the opening beyond. If you
have trouble with the jump to the collapsing tiles, try this
alternative: Walk to the edge of the pit, take a standing
jump to grab the edge of the break-away tile, pull up and
immediately take a running jump to the alcove. This is
SECRET #3. Inside you'll find a
large medipak and
2 sets of Uzi clips.
(NOTE: Due to a bug, this
secret may not register. At the end the display will say you
found 2 out of 3 secrets but, trust me, this is it.)
Return to the doorway and either take a standing jump
from the edge, or take a step back from the edge and swan
dive (Walk + Jump + Forward) to land in the tiny pool below.
Pick up the Uzi clips on the
bottom, then follow the underwater passage until you can
surface. Climb out of the water and pick up
4 more sets of Uzi clips (and the
final save crystal in the
game).
HUGE ROOM WITH SQUARE PILLARS (FINAL BATTLE):
Advance into the next room with weapons drawn. Above on the
left is your old friend Jacqueline Natla.
Only now she's sporting a spiffy pair of wings and shooting
fireballs at you. Use the same basic strategy as with the
centaurs: Back flip and side flip to avoid the missiles,
keep shooting and don't let her get you in a corner.
Once she falls, assess the situation, but don't get
overconfident: Natla is not put down so easily.
She rises up again to resume the fight.
If you've been asleep at the wheel and somehow don't have
enough ammo, you can run into the tunnel to the right of the
entrance (i.e., in the middle of the west wall beyond the
black rocks). Here you'll find 6 sets of
Uzi clips. Unfortunately this tunnel can't be used
for cover, since Natla will follow Lara inside. Kill her a
second time and you're home free. (Each time Natla falls
counts as a kill on your stats screen.)
Now you'll need to get up to the top of the cavern to
exit. Go to the northeast corner and climb onto the rock
pile. From here you can jump into the doorway behind the
rocks. Use a standing jump with Action to land in the
doorway, or drop down to the ground and climb in. Follow the
passageway up to a doorway. Take a running jump to the
nearest pillar, then another running jump to the pillar on
the left. Take a standing jump to the next pillar, which is
just below a door. Climb in and follow this passageway to an
opening in the floor. Safety drop onto another, higher
pillar.
Turn around and take a running jump to the pillar ahead
and to the left. Take another running jump to the next
pillar, then another running jump to grab the pillar beyond,
which is also under an opening. Climb up into it and follow
the passage to another opening where you can drop onto the
highest pillar.
Take a running jump to the red-and-gold ledge. Climb into
the opening above and continue forward to a long ramp. Slide
down to end the level and the game.
Congratulations! You did it! Now sit back for a
final short movie: Lara runs out of the pyramid just in
time. She takes Natla's boat and speeds out to sea as the
island explodes.
NOTE: If you go to the passport and
start a new game now, you'll have all weapons and unlimited
ammo.
Walkthrough text, maps, diagrams, and all
other original images copyright © 1997-2008 Stellalune.
All
rights reserved.
Tomb Raider 1
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