Interaction with objects

On land Lara can pick up useful objects, press buttons, push levers and switches, pull chains, reach into holes, open doors and hatches, reach jumpswitches, open sarcophaguses (and other containers depending on the creativity of the level builder), insert objects into their correct places and push and pull certain objects around.

In water she can pick up useful objects, pull certain switches and open certain doors.

Often the trick is to determine which objects she can do what about.

Some objects are shatterable and must be shot to offer new possibilities. Look up “weapons” for more on this.

Pick-ups:

- On land: place Lara near the desired object (use walk to adjust her position) and press action. She'll then pick up the object from the floor, a hole in the wall, a waist-high pedestal or a pedestal her own height. Some objects must be pried from a wall with a crowbar, look up “crowbar”.

- In water: let her float just above the object (use jump and the arrows to make her swim to the right spot) and press action.

The pick-ups will now be found in the inventory. Look up “the inventory menu”.

A very few pick-ups are meant as hints about something. They usually come as a kind of text like a scroll, book or piece of paper. When you look it up in the inventory the text under it will say “examine” instead of “use”. When you do that you’ll get an important text or picture. Leave the inventory when you are done studying it. This kind of pick-up can be examined as often as you wish.

Doors:

Most doors and hatches open when Lara carries out a certain action such as pressing a button. The ones mentioned here are the ones that must be opened manually by her.

- On land: place Lara in front of the door and press action. Lara will now push the door open, turn the doorknob to open the door or kick the door open. If she says “no” it’s a door, which must be forced open with a crowbar, look up “crowbar”.

- In water: place her squarely in front of the door in such a way that she appears to look at it and press action, then she will pull it open. For some reason it is vital that she “sees” the door - otherwise nothing happens.

Hatches in ceiling or floor:

The hatches that are opened manually usually (but not always) have a handle to indicate it.

- For those in the floor you must place Lara along the frame of the hatch - either on top of it or in front of it - with her face turned towards the centre of it. Then you press action and Lara will open it. If nothing happens, try another side of the hatch. Just don’t stand in the centre of it.

- The hatches in the ceiling are a bit more demanding. To open such one you must place Lara directly below the handle with her face turned towards the centre of the block she is standing on. Now press jump and action (the order is insignificant) and Lara will jump up and grab the handle and pull the hatch open. If nothing happens, try adjusting her position more precisely below the handle.

Various switches and levers:

- On land: place Lara in front of the switch and press action. Lara will then push the button, switch or lever or pull the chain or the switch if it has already been pushed once.

- In water: place her in front of the switch in such a way that she appears to look at it and press action then she’ll pull it. Again it’s vital that she “sees” the switch.

Jumpswitches: place Lara in front of and just below it (it’s placed high on a wall) press jump and action – the order isn’t important – and if the jumpswitch is in a reachable height, she will grab and pull it.

Alternatively the jumpswitch may be reachable from above – if the distance between the jumpswitch and the ledge above is no more than one and a half time Lara’s height. Work your way up to the ledge directly above the jumpswitch and do a safety drop from it (look up “climbing”). Let go of action to drop and immediately press it again to grab the jumpswitch on the way down.

Inserting an object: place Lara in front of the receptable and press action. If the required object is in your possession the inventory will open presenting the object. Then you press action or enter and Lara will use it.

Combos: some of the objects meant to be inserted into a receptable are in two pieces and must be assembled before they are usable. To do this you press inventory and use left and right to rotate your way through the contents till you reach one piece of the object. If you have both pieces two options will be available below the piece: “use” (won’t work) and “combine”. To move between these options you use up or down. When you choose “combine” you will be presented with all objects – relevant or not – that can possibly be combined. Use left and right to rotate your way to the other piece of the object. Press action or enter to combine the two pieces and the assembled object is now ready for use.

Moving an object:

Some objects can be moved, but only on perfectly flat ground and with space to move it. The word ground is not literal here – Lara is also able to move objects in shallow or waist-deep water.

To push or pull an object you place Lara next to it, facing it. She is able to push or pull from all four sides of the object and thus move it around in many directions.

Press action – Lara will go into her ready stance. While holding action you press either up or down depending of your choice of direction and she will carry out the action.

The ready stance

Once she has begun to push or pull the object you can let go of all keys and rest your fingers. This is the one case where Lara doesn’t let go if you let go of action.

Pushing an object

Pulling an object

Additional trick:

It’s normally possible to squeeze Lara in between a wall and a pushable object. Sidestep into the narrow space between the wall and the object as far as possible then press action. Lara will walk into the correct place for pushing the object and assume her ready stance.

Special objects:

There are some special objects that work differently than the others. I’ll explain about them here.

Crowbar:

The crowbar is a necessity for prying objects off walls and force some doors open. It must be picked up somewhere in the level.

When you are going to use it you place Lara in front of the object/door in question and press action. The inventory will then open presenting the crowbar and you accept by pressing either action or enter. Lara will take out the crowbar and use it.

Torch:

The torch is a part of many puzzles. It enables Lara to put fire to things or light other torches, which again will cause something to happen. And it lights her surroundings making flares unnecessary for the time being.

The torch must be picked up somewhere in the level. But Lara can’t put it into her backpack and must carry it around in one hand. This limits her possibilities. With one hand occupied she can’t do anything that demands the use of her hands such as climb, pull herself up on a ledge, crawl, use her weapons, use flares, pick up things or interact with other objects. To do these things she must throw the torch away.

And water of course extinguishes the torch. Lara is able to carry it through shallow and waist-deep water, but if you jump into to water deep enough for swimming she will let go of it – and she can’t pick it up again.

She is however able to swim on the surface with it. But to do so she must get into deeper water gradually via either a slope or a series of low steps (knee high steps) and she must be able to get out of the water in a similar manner.

So if you have found and picked up the torch you must plan your route with care. Since Lara is no longer able to climb, crawl or pull herself up on anything you can only reach the ledges you are able to jump unto.

To throw the torch away you press draw weapon then Lara will throw the torch a distance away. Keep an eye on where the torch lands if you do this – it can be very difficult to find again if it’s not lit, and you may risk throwing it into a place from where you can’t leave with it again (lit or not).

You can make sure that Lara drops the torch right where she’s standing. To do that you press one of the hot keys for a weapon in stead of draw weapon – use the key for a weapon you already have. Lara will be so busy drawing her weapon(s) that the torch just falls from her hands.

Concerning crawling there is a trick to get both Lara and the torch trough a crawlspace. Place Lara in front of the crawlspace but a distance away from it and press draw weapon. If you have done it right Lara will throw the torch into the crawlspace – if not, make Lara crouch (press duck) when she picks up the torch again and make her throw it while crouching. Now press duck and the arrows and crawl into the crawlspace till you reach the torch. Pick it up (press action) and throw it away again in the direction you are heading (press draw weapon). Repeat this procedure until you are out on the other side of the crawlspace. It’s time consuming, but you might make it.

When you pick up the torch it’s of course not lit. That is the first task. If Lara finds fire she can light it. Whether the fire is on the ground, on a pedestal or at a wall is no problem as long as she can reach it. But be careful: Lara may be set on fire too, so you better stand at a respectful distance when lighting the torch.

All you have to do is to be near (but not too near) the fire and press action and Lara will light her torch. And to use the torch to light other wall torches, campfires and such things you step near the object and press action.

Sometimes you also come across a rope you can set fire to. In this case you just place Lara right below the rope and jump straight in the air so the burning torch gets in contact with the rope. Give the rope a few moments to burn and then go look for the results.

And finally you may find a wooden floor that is flammable. In this case you simply throw the torch (press draw weapon) so it lands on it. It takes a while before the floor catches fire and once the fire dies out it also takes a while before the burnt floor breaks and gives access to the room below, so be patient and just stay at a safe distance.

Be aware that you lose the torch in this fire.

The torch and the wooden floor

Elementals puzzle and the water scales:

The last special objects are a group of objects used for the elementals puzzle or the water scales. The objects are the small waterskin, the large waterskin, the jerrycan, the bag of sand and the mechanical scarab.

These objects aren’t automatically chosen when Lara stands in front of the pedestals/receptables where the elements (water, fire and earth) are to be placed. The reason is that part of the puzzle is to figure out which element goes where and to do a few extra things about them.

The pedestals/receptacles for the elementals puzzle

To use the objects connected with it you have to press inventory and rotate it with left and right until you reach the object you wish to use. Then press either action or enter to use it.

Sometimes Lara for some reason refuses and says “no”. Then press inventory again and use the other key (i.e. action if you used enter before or enter if you used action before) that should normally sort things out.

- The bag of sand is the simpler to use. Just select and use it as described above. Lara will empty the sand into the bowl on the earth pedestal.

- To make fire you have to pour the flammable agent from the jerrycan into the bowl on the fire pedestal. Select and use it. Now you have to find a torch, light it and then light the liquid in the bowl. Look up “torch” on how to use it.

- The waterskin (small or large) needs to be filled with water you can then pour into the bowl on the water pedestal. Find some shallow water, walk into it and select the waterskin. Lara will then fill it. Now you go back to the water pedestal and empty the water into the bowl as described above.

The small and large waterskins are also used with the water scales. In this case the puzzle is about filling the correct amount of water into the pot on one of the scale arms. The needed amount of water is usually hinted in the vicinity of the scales.

The small waterskin contains 3 litres and the large 5 litres and the two waterskins can be combined so that water from one skin can be poured into the other. With some manipulation of water back and forth between the skins and filling or emptying one of the skins you are able to get a water amount of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 litres of water.

The water scales

To fill the waterskins you find some shallow water, walk into it, enter the inventory, select the waterskin and use it as described above.

Lara can empty the waterskins anywhere. Just enter the inventory, select the desired waterskin and use it. When you want her to pour the water into the pot in the water scales be certain to place her as precisely in front of the pot as possible otherwise she may pour the water on the ground.

When you want to combine the two waterskins in order to pour water from one into the other you press inventory and use left and right to find the waterskin you want to pour water from. Use up and down to move between the choices below the waterskin. Then you choose “combine”. As usual every object available for combination is then presented. Use left and right to rotate this menu until you reach the waterskin you want to pour to and press either action or enter.

Working with the waterskins is often a situation where Lara refuses to do as you wish and says “no”. If this happens, just try again and press the other key (action if you pressed enter before or enter if you pressed action before). Or switch the order of the waterskins.

In some situations a monster plays a role for the water scales. It’s caged nearby and if you fail to pour the correct amount of water into the pot the monster is released. Before you can do anything else you must kill this monster. It doesn’t really die, but is magically returned to its cage and the water scales is reset and ready for a new attempt to pour the correct amount of water.

The mechanical scarab:

With this object the puzzle is to determine where to use it. Hint: when there is a picture of a scarab on the floor. Just stand on the picture, enter the inventory and select the mechanical scarab.

When placed correctly the mechanical scarab rolls a certain distance and activates the traps along its path so Lara can pass safely. When it reaches the end of its path (usually another picture of a scarab you just pick it up for later use.

If placed too far away from the black spot in the centre of the picture the scarab will just rotate confused around itself until Lara picks it up again.

The scarab can only be used three times (a failed attempt to use it doesn’t count). The fourth time Lara winds it up and puts it on the ground it breaks. The puzzle may be to choose which paths need to be cleared in order to get the most important things done.

The mechanical scarab at work

Working with the mechanical scarab is often a situation where Lara refuses to do as you wish and says “no”. If this happens, just try again and press the other key (action if you pressed enter before or enter if you pressed action before).

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