THE THING IN THE CELLAR (REVISED)

 

Level by Blacksheep

Walkthrough by manarch2 (overhauled by Treeble Dec 2023.)

 

Thanks to snork for giving valuable hints for the last area, and to Harry Laudie's walkthrough and solution of the block puzzle for the original release of this level.

 

[ * * * ]

 

You start on a high green ledge. Pick up flares and slide down to a lower area. Pick up revolver ammo there and jump in the water. Swim east, pass some more rocky areas and a closed gate southeast and finally climb out at the end. Shoot a soldier from the ledge and get where he came from by swimming south and finding another place to climb out of the water, then jumping to the wooden blocks. Pick up a small medipack the soldier left behind and jump up north once more, through the narrow gap ahead.

 

Throw a lever around the corner, then go further north to find flares. Get back where you came from and go through the door you have just opened. Go north and in the following room shoot three soldiers (one on the floor, one on a higher ledge, and one high up west) and two dogs. Climb the blocks to a west balcony. Go around it in a clockwise direction and you will find a large medipack at the end, then jump to the central structure with shotgun ammo and climb a ladder there to the roof. Go right for some uzi ammo in the corner, then loop around the perimeter to find a TRAPDOOR KEY in the opposite corner, but save your game before picking it up: a door opens on the ledge beneath you and a soldier gets out and you have a choice to make.

 

The soldier will ignore you and rush blindly towards his objective, which is to activate three sentry guns in the next area, which sounds very bad (and it is!) but it's also necessary to open a door to the second secret, so it's up to you which path you choose.

 

Path 1 (safer, but you get locked out of all secrets):

 

Drop to the central structure below and be quick, shooting the soldier while you chase after him around the corners, you must defeat him before he triggers the sentry guns (a camera fly-by will let you know when this happens, if it does). The soldier drops a large medipack, and you can find uzi ammo on a ledge and a small medipack near the opening in the central fence.

 

Backtrack to the place the soldier came from to find a golden rose for SECRET #1, then return to the room where he met his end and find a ladder. Climb it to the top to activate a jump switch, which opens a door inside the fenced off area. Before dropping in there, jump to the inner alcove to the right and do a banana jump to the next alcove to find the UZIS, then fall to the lower room and go through the tall open gate. Get shotgun ammo from the corner and use your key to open the nearby trapdoor. Jump in the water and pull out on a wooden crate from which you can jump to a crawlspace in the wall. The following room contains a pushblock puzzle:

 

https://www.trle.net/walk/1716-Dateien/image002.jpg

 

Your starting position is the dark yellow tile at the bottom.

Move box from 4 to 5.
Move box from 1 to 9.
Move box from 5 to 4.
Move box from 2 to 5.

 

Move box from 4 to 1.
Move box from 5 to 6.
Move box from 1 to 4.
Move box from 4 to 7.

Move box from 6 to 5.
Move box from 5 to 8.
Move box from 3 to 2.

Enter alcove 10 to find the first THISTLE STONE.

Move box from 2 to 3.
Move box from 3 to 10.
Move box from 9 to 1.
Move box from 1 to 2.

Enter alcove 9 and dive into the water.

 

Skip the following paragraphs to the part where both paths converge.

Path 2 (all secrets):

 

The soldier rushes out of the door below, completely ignoring you. Might as well just ignore him. Enter the open door he came out of and take the golden rose for SECRET #1, then follow the perimeter of this floor to find the area where the three sentry guns are now ready to make short work out of poor Lara.

 

Save often, as you'll need to outsmart the guns when running around the corners praying not a single flame reaches you. When you've cleared all corners, you'll find the soldier standing still, quickly enter the opening behind him to get out of range from the dreaded sentry guns. Before dropping into the lower area, jump to the inner alcove to the right and do a banana jump to the next alcove to find the UZIS. The small gate beneath the entry point is open, so go through it.

 

Get assorted ammo pickups in the corridor leading you outside, then pull up on the left side and follow the ledge to find Von Croy locked in a cell of sorts. Press the button to let yourself in and claim all his goodies: a large medipack, more assorted ammo and a golden rose for SECRET #2. Fall through the hole next to the button, then crawl to the edge and shimmy around the corner to the adjacent crawlspace. Drop on the other side of the wall for a THISTLE STONE. You don't need to solve the pushblock puzzle; just climb the ladder back up to the crawlspace and fall into the water on the other side of the wall.

 

Paths 1 and 2 converge at this point.

 

Swim along the tunnel and reach a bigger room where you can go up for air, spot a wider tunnel and swim on until you reach another rocky room. Get yourself to the far southeast corner of the water, climb out and immediately backflip onto a block there. Jump to the northwest ledge, climb up and find shotgun ammo behind the block. Back up in the ledge, jump to the crevice and shimmy left until you can pull up. Shoot two bats from the next block.

 

You're now faced with not one, but two tricky jumps. The first one is for a secret only: do a running jump to the highest and farthest point you can on the slope ahead of you, doing a mid-air turn if necessary so you can immediately jump facing forwards to grab the ledge of the floor below. Shimmy all the way to the left, then pull up and backflip, keep jumping back and forth as you steer left to land on a flat block. Turn around and find the last golden rose (SECRET #3) inside this fenced-off area. manarch2 has graciously provided a video for this jump, which you can watch here. Back in the water, work your way up to the top again.

 

Now, the tricky jump you need to make to proceed. You need to hit the slope exactly at the last pixel, so Lara doesn't slide but instead stumble over it, gaining a few extra inches to her jump to grab the edge of the opening just beyond. It's not as difficult as it seems, you just need to find the proper spot (and remember to keep holding forward + Action). manarch2 has also graciously provided a video showcasing this jump.

 

Climb to the rooftop and go west, a cutscene shows you some dug up spots below... Shoot a vulture and carefully climb down, all those dug up spots indicate the presence of deadly mines, so avoid the patches of dirt at all costs. Find a SHOTGUN in the middle of this area, next to the wooden crate, and open a small door in the southeast corner. Take the flares inside and climb the boxes to the top, finding more uzi ammo on the way. Get on the walkway and shoot a soldier and his dog. Notice a pipe hanging off the wall; we have no means of getting it yet so we'll be back later.

 

Save your game. Go east and slide through the narrow gap a bit to jump to a flat ledge just beyond. Try not to go too far as a soldier will push a boulder onto you. Kill him and jump across the gap for shotgun ammo on the east side and uzi ammo in the south alcove. Now get back to the platform where you first entered this area and do a long running jump while holding action towards the tilted fence east: you should glide straight into a lower passage on the wall. Shoot another soldier at the end and climb down the ladder, then go through an open gate north.

 

Enter a west alcove and monkey swing to the other side. Crawl further in and drop to shimmy along the crevice to the right, around a corner to a ladder. Backflip with a mid-air roll to the next crevice and continue shimmying to the right until you can drop on a safe spot below. Crawl under the overhanging wall to find a lever in the end. This turns off the fire pit, so you can get the GARAGE KEY from the middle of the room and climb the ladder right back to where you came from. Monkey swing back across the river and take a brief step past the wooden barricades to trigger a boulder. Return the way you came, through the open fence to the south.

 

Work your way all the way to the top of the grassy hills to unlock the garage. Inside, find the REVOLVER and get on the motorbike, but also make a mental note of another locked door to the left — we'll be back shortly. For now, ride down the ramp and loop around the corner to ride the rocky path upwards, good thing you've disarmed the boulder trap before hand. Leave your bike at the flat top grass patch, slide down to the next area and jump into the water in the gap below.

 

Pull out of water east and open the door. Upstairs, find the CROWBAR by the broken table (crouch to pick it up). Push the button on the other end of the room to raise a block somewhere else and leave. Jump into the water and swim south; an underwater door opens, so you can swim west and climb on the newly raised block just around the bend. When you jump into the opening just above it, you'll find yourself on a familiar place.

 

Go left, past the fallen boulder, and now find an opening in the north there. Dispatch the two soldiers shooting at you from vantage points, then turn around and climb the ladder to the top. Jump southwest to find revolver ammo on the rooftop, then jump northeast and around the perimeter of the area, where the soldiers once stood, until you get to a box of shotgun ammo. Going further to the west, gun down a vulture and jump to the ladder. Climb it to the top and use the crowbar on the broken lever stand. The trapdoor next to you opens, drop in and follow the corridor to get the NITROUS OXIDE CANISTER. As you pick it up, two sets of spikes activate in the tunnel behind you, time your moves to avoid them as you work your way back.

 

You can either dive into the water and climb the stacked crates at the far south end of the river, as you did in the beginning of the level, or you can drop from the trapdoor to the landing below and run towards that lever in the back to jump to the top of the stacked crates. Enter the open door there and find a raised red block, allowing a quick way back up to the top of the area, then pull up to the upper landing to finally pry that VALVE PIPE off the wall. Combine it with the canister in your possession and you'll make the NITROUS OXIDE FEEDER.

 

You now have to get back to your bike, so first jump into the water again and swim to the raised block east. Climb into the opening on the wall and go left, past the boulder, and into the alcove again. Climb the outside ladder to the central rooftop again and from there you can find your bike to the east, atop the rocky hill. Jump over the gap.

 

Use the feeder on your bike and you can now drive over the big water gap by holding down the Action + Sprint buttons. On the other side, run over two soldiers and two dogs, then find the LASERSIGHT one of the men was carrying. You don't need the bike anymore, so leave it there and go back to the water, swim through the opening westward and then to the stacked wooden crates near the south end.

 

Climb out on the ledge there and use the sighted revolver to shatter the vase in the water, between the stacks of crates, to reveal the second THISTLE STONE. Take it and use both of them on the ledge you're on to open the wooden doors. Follow the corridor and jump to the balcony on the right hand side, minding the low ceilings here (and yes, the blue goo leaking out of the safe below is lethal). Turn around and shoot a soldier in the middle of the room.

 

Jump back to the entrance and then to that walkway in the middle of the room. That soldier dropped a ROOM KEY. Take it and jump back to the entrance, work your way back to the river and loop around to the opening on the wall above the risen block. Go up the grassy hills back to the garage and unlock that door you'd seen earlier on. From the metal box in the corner, monkey swing as far as you can and turn slightly left so you'll slide facing forwards, immediately jumping to the next slope and once more to grab another set of vines on the ceiling. Swing all the way to the alcove in the end where a large medipack awaits.

 

Turn around and do a running jump to the lower metal box in the fire pit. Jump around the corner and grab the ledge, then pull up and do a long running jump to clear the next fire pit. You see a water tank surrounded by fences, run around the perimeter until you get to the lever in the back, push it and the water gets released to the chambers below. Now it's time to retrace our path back: when you get to the fire pits, a couple of blocks have lowered in the walls allowing for a shortcut back to the garage, from which you go down the grassy hills and loop around to the left through the door you've opened with the two thistle stones.

 

The room with the safe is flooded now, so dive in and swim through the west passage to find an immortal spider (aka mutated Willard) in the next room. Drop into his lair and quickly jump to the flat rocks in the east side of the room, then work your way up to the opening in the north wall. There, kill a dog and throw a lever to lower a rope over the spider. Get the large medipack and inspect the nearby slit in the vine wall to reach in for a third THISTLE STONE, then go back to the previous room.

 

Save your game. Quickly run to the red tile and jump with a mid-air turn towards the slope, aiming for the tallest point possible, so that you can swerve Lara towards the dangling rope. It might take a few tries. When you land the jump, swing into the passage west and swim back to the flooded room with the safe. Get up on the east ledge and use the thistle stone there. The mutated spider vanishes, leaving the HAND OF RATHMORE behind, so go back there to claim it. The red tile has now raised so the rope is easily accessible, swing back and swim towards the northwest to pull back on the entrance to leave this area.

 

Immediately after crossing the fence out of the room with the safe, pull up onto the windowsill there to find a lock. If you have all three secrets, then you still have a spare trapdoor key in your possession. Use it on this lock and proceed to leave through the doorway to see the true ending. Otherwise, you get the regular one (mind you, the difference between them is very subtle).