Temple Of Vaalbara

 

Levels by m.julien

 

Walkthrough by José

 

LEVEL ONE

 

THE SILVER KEY

 

Drop into the hole, slide down the ramp and see the flyby. When it finishes, quickly dive to the W and climb the far wide ledge in front of you. Shoot the crocs and jump into the water to the NW. There is a hole there at the bottom. Swim there and pull the underwater switch to open a door somewhere. Take a breath and explore the underwater places of this very huge main room to find shotgun shells in NE corner, uzi clips near the E wall and a small medipack in the SE corner. Near this SE corner there's an underwater opening in S wall. Dive there and follow the path to a place with corridors with shallow waters. Go W, S around the corner and into the water to dive through the E opening. There's a croc here; swim N and down to find an underwater switch near the bottom. Pull it to open a timed door in the other side of the room, behind the bars. Quickly swim up and to the entrance of this room and turn right (N) the way you came, right in the corner (E) and run to the next corner; right (S) and swim through the W underwater opening (if Lara refuses to run through the shallow waters, press the jump key). There's another croc here. Quickly swim right and down to the bottom to find the (hopefully) open door. The door closes behind you; pick up the Silver Key and pull the underwater lever twice to open the door. Make your way to return to the huge main room avoiding the crocs.

 

ACCESS TO THE THREE DOORS ROOM

 

Swim all the way to the W and through the big central underwater opening in W wall. Once out of the water shoot the crocs and go up the wide stairs. You arrive at a room with Neptune statues. In the SE corner there are shotgun shells. Go to the NW corner and press Ctrl to open the grated doors. Advance and go right at the junction (notice the closed door to your left). Shoot the croc and in the next water corridors turn right to pick up a small medipack from the underwater pedestal. Return to the junction and go straight N; follow the path to a flooded room. Dive through the central opening in the bottom of the floor and in the next small room step on the tile with the omega sign to dry the previous room. Pull the switch in N wall to open a door somewhere (there's not a camera shot). Go all the way back to the beginning of the corridors near the grated doors to find the open door in W wall. Now you're in a room with a pedestal in its center and three doors. Pick up the large medipack from the pedestal and go to the W door first (it opens for you automatically).

 

W DOOR: BURNERS ROOM

 

This is one of the most difficult challenges of the game. In the very W side of this room there's a pedestal with a key (your goal). You must step on the tile in the central platform to deactivate the spikes under the pedestal, but when you do this, a lot of flame emmiters are activated. Then, you must step on a high tiles with the omega signs in NW and SW corners to raise two timed trapdoors W so you can reach the pedestal, but it's almost impossible to do this task, 'cause the time is very short and you have to monkeyswing with the fires to your side with a time too short to pass. Fortunately I found an alternative way to reach the pedestal with the key. I did it so:

 

Don't step on the central tile, but go right (W) to the end of the ledge. Light a flare and grab the monkeyswing, go all the way W and to the right to land on the NW omega tile; the first trapdoor raises. Save your game here. Now you must do the next movements as fast as you can. Face E and drop to the floor; run E, climb the ladder in the corner and jump back to the E ledge; turn around and run to the S end; light another flare, grab the monkeyswing and go W and to the left to land on the second omega tile to raise the second trapdoor. Face E and drop to the floor; run E, climb the ladder in the corner and jump back to the E ledge; turn around and run to the center of the ledge turning left without stopping to jump to the central platform, step on the central tile and watch the flyby. When it's finished take a running jump W, timing the burners in front of you, from the very edge of the platform to grab the left trapdoor. From here jump to the next trapdoor and to the ledge with the pedestal. Pick up the Rusted Key and return to the room with three doors. (Unfortunately the flare bug appears now).

 

S DOOR: SPIKED WALLS PASSAGE

 

Now go through the S door. Walk a bit and stop: you can see wall spikes on either side, breakable tiles and a blade further on. This is another hard challenge for you. Be sure that Lara has full health and save your game. Sprint through the narrow passage avoiding the spike walls (a bit to the left and then right to avoid the torch on the wall); at the end don't try to jump over the blade but forget it taking some damage and run to the edge taking a running jump to grab the rope; quickly swing ahead and jump off to grab the ladder avoiding another spike wall. If you're lucky you will be grabbing the ladder with a bit of health and you can replenish it now (you'll need it!) and save your game again. If you're really fast, you can climb the ladder to the top and jump quickly to avoid the appearing spikes, but I couldn't get it (the time is too short again) and I had to climb and walk slowly through the spikes, losing a lot of health and wasting a large medipack. Either way once on the other side of the spikes tile pull the switch to open the door to your left and see the third door opening in the three doors room. Go left, shoot the crocs and continue to a balcony in the room with the Neptune statues. Go right and to the end to pick up flares; safety drop to ground floor and return to the three doors room.

 

N DOOR: ROLLING BALLS PASSAGE

 

Enter the N door now and save your game again. Run and jump over the lava hole avoiding a falling ball with a left curve; there's a sloped tile in the other side, if you're lucky you'll land just in the very left corner of the next tile (without a slide) avoiding this way another ball. If you don't do it so, you'll have to run and jump again over another lava hole and avoid a third rolling ball which appears in front of you, but this way is very, very difficult and you'll die a lot of times. If you got to land on the corner avoiding the second rolling ball you can step on the grey tile and quickly jump back; spikes are deactivated now and you can safety hang from the N edge of this grey tile to trigger the third rolling ball and wait with tranquillity till it stops. Now continue N jumping over the ball and left to get the Communicating Room Key. Now if you want some extra items you can continue N triggering a fourth rolling ball and go where it came from to climb a ladder and find SECRET #1: shotgun shells and a small medipack. Either way return to the three doors room the way you came.

 

THE SHOTGUN

 

Now it's time to use your keys so, return to the huge main room and swim NE to a square stone structure you can climb from its SW side. Take a running jump N to reach the next ledge and use two keys to open the doors. Go right (hopefully the flare bug disappears here and you can use the flares again) and use the switch to activate a fire revealing two floating ledges in the other room. Go there and time the fire to jump onto the first and second ledges. From here a running jump W to grab the crack in the wall. If you want more goodies you can shimmy all the way to the right till you find a ladder; continue shimmying right to reach a balcony where you can pick up the shotgun and a small medipack. If you do it so you'll have to jump into the water and return to the main room through a hole in the floor (S) and again to the floating ledges. Grab the crack again and shimmy a bit to the right to the lower part of the crack, drop and grab the crack below, shimmy right to the center of the room and hoist up discovering a new passage.

 

MOVEABLE BLOCKS PUZZLE

 

In this new room light a flare and go to the NW corner discovering two moveable blocks.  Push the W block twice and go through the passage to find another moveable block; pull it once and go back around the corners to push the N block in front of the omega tile several times to finally discover two torches in a niche to your right. If you want extra items you can push the W block all the way to the W, return and pull the N block twice; go again to the W passage where this last block was to discover SECRET #2: shotgun shells and uzi clips. Pick up a torch and go out, S and right (W) to the hole at the end of the corridor. Throw your torch here and drop to the floor. You're now in the room you dried a long time ago. Pick up the torch and light it with the torch in S wall; light the remaining (three) torches in this room to open the door. Climb the ladder and in the next room use the switch to raise the level of the water in the main room. Go S to a balcony overlooking the room with the Neptune statues, shooting a dog in your way. Go left and grab the edge of the crack; shimmy around the corner and all the way to the right till you can stand up. Pull the switch in this alcove ro raise a block below and so have a shortcut to return to the switch so you can lower/raise the level of the water in the future. Return to the main room.

 

ROOM WITH SPIKED FLOOR

 

The level of the water is now higher, so you can access an opening in SE corner, right of the ramp where you began this level. Drop into a room with the Pharos Knot on a pedestal and 2 x uzi ammo in the corners. Pick up the items and shoot some dogs. Climb the N ladder and pull the switch to lower a block below in a room in NW corner, go there and enter a room with a spiked floor. This is another hard challenge for the players. There are the uzis in the E corridor and a switch in the NE corner with an omega tile behind. It works this way: when you pull the switch all the spikes pop up except several in certain tiles, but when you step on the omega tile (or jump over it too), the spikes retract (except the intermittent spikes) making more difficult your goal: reach the other side of the room. I think the purpose of the author was to use those tiles with spikes popping up and down to reach the W side, but for me was impossible, even trying to jump to the S alcove. So this is what I did: pull the switch but don't step on the omega tile; be sure that Lara has full health and from the tile under the switch face SW and run over the tile W of the omega tile with the spikes up, losing a lot of health, turn right and quickly do a single jump to the N alcove with the columns, using medipacks if necessary. Try to jump from the SE corner of the spiked tile and adjust your jump NW to the very corner of the wall of the alcove, 'cause if you activate the spikes in the next tile it's certain that you can't survive. All this can take several tries. When you, hopefully, reach the N alcove, it's not difficult to take a running jump W with a right curve to a safe tile near the W wall. Climb the ladder, go E and pull the lever to deactivate the spikes in the middle of the set in E wall. I crossed to the S and pulled the other lever too, but I don't know what it triggers (perhaps a secret?). Now grab the monkeyswing and cross the room to the other side, returning this way to the main room.

 

TIMED RUN

 

Now swim all the way W to the room with the Neptune statues (two crocs are released), use Ctrl near the grated doors in SW corner to open them but don't enter yet. Use the raised block to return to the switch which raises/lowers the height of the waters and use it to lower it this time. Return to the main room and climb the large ledge W and go to its S side. Turn SE and use your binoculars with light to see some high ledges, two lowered trapdoors and a jumpswitch in the E pillar. This is your next goal. Turn W/SW to spot an opening in the W wall. Take a running jump there with a right curve around the corner and continue till you find the receptacle for the Pharos Knot. Place it to open the door and enter. Go W to a room with a central pool. Continue through the W passage; the right corridor leads you to the room with the Neptune statues. Go there, shoot the dogs at your back and use the raised block one more time and pull the switch again to raise the level of the waters in the main room. Return to the room with the Neptune statues, through the SW doors and right down the stairs to an apparently empty room. Light a flare to discover a moveable block in the SE corner. Pull it out and aside and enter in a new room with a switch. This switch is timed, and raises the trapdoors you saw in the main room. Pull it and quickly run to the adjacent room, up the stairs and to the room with the central pool; climb the ladder and go right at the junction; sprint through the corridors and at the end use the ledges and the raised trapdoors around the corner to, hopefully, pull the jumpswitch in the E pillar.

 

EXITING THE LEVEL

 

Once into the water, swim a bit E and hoist up the S ledge. Climb the ladder and go through the door you've opened with the jumpswitch; left through the E corridors and in the other side of the room notice the hole in S wall. This is the exit, but it's too deep and dried. Use the communicating room key to open the door and return all the way back to the switch to lower the level of the waters a last time. Return to the exit room now via the door you've opened with the Communicating Room Key (this time you can't do it via the ladder in the main room) and drop into the hole in S wall, now with water at the bottom and follow the path to finish this hard and complex level.

 

LEVEL TWO

 

Swing and arrive at another very huge room with two Neptune statues. Your goal here is to find two tridents to place them in the statues to open the exit door. But this will require a lot of work and surpass very hard tasks again. Well, let's go.

 

LAVA ROOM

 

Run to the NW area, down the ramp and open the left or right grated doors pressing Ctrl. Walk slowly just at the very center of the ramp to trigger two rolling balls. Here we have another very hard challenge for the players. The logical way to proceed is to run over the central breakable tiles, jump to grab the crack in W wall, shimmy to the right, jump into the NW pool, run over the breakable tiles in N wall to reach the E ledge, run S like a fool between the spiked bags with spiked walls in front and behind, jump to the S timed spiked ledges and finally reach the safe omega tile in SW corner. The tasks are not very hard, but the final jump to the timed spike tiles in S wall is almost impossible 'cause of the S spiked wall (I've tried it many times and I was not be able to get it). So (one more time!) I had to think of an alternative way to surpass this madness. This is what I did:

 

Don't go down the ramp, but turn left, approach the S edge and take a running jump S with a left curve to land on the safe ledge near the spiked wall, losing only a little bit of health. Now approach the S spiked wall and turn right: there are some spike ledges, grey and brown along the S wall. The brown ones are deadly and the grey ones are timed. Jump and run over the grey ones without stopping to hopefully reach the safe ledge with the omega sign in SW corner. Climb the ladder and jump back with a twist to grab the edge of the ledge behind. Go E and pull the switch at the end to open a door somewhere. Now the problem is to go back to the main room; situate Lara in the corner of this ledge next to the N fires near the entrance ramp and angle her in a N/NW direction; take a running jump to the SE corner of the tile with the most E fire (keeping up arrow pressed) and hopefully Lara will land in the very corner without getting toasted (it can take several tries). From here a single jump to the ramp and up to the main room.

 

CLIMBING TO THE TOP

 

Return to the place where you entered this main room and this time go S. Pick up uzi clips from the pedestal to your left and observe four holes in the floor in front of you. The SE and SW holes are spike traps. Let's go to the NE first to find a large medipack and return; the E wall is climbable. Drop into the NW hole now and go through the passage; swim to the end of the path, shoot the croc and pull the lever to deactivate some spikes somewhere. Return to the main room but notice the closed door in the alcove in E wall. Behind it there is one of the tridents you need. When you reach the bottom of the hole use the W wall to climb up. Go left (S) and up either left or right stairs. Pick up the Rusted Key from the pedestal and shoot two giant creatures. Go through the E passage and at the end is the door you've opened moments ago. Beware with the rolling ball, climb to the next corridor and use the monkeyswing to get to the other side. Once here you have two options: continue through the corridor W or go right to the top of the room. I went W through the corridor first.

 

RELEASING A ROPE

 

Shoot the creature, go down the stairs and shoot another one. Turn left at the keyhole and jump into the water. Swim through the hole in the floor and get uzi clips and a large medipack at the end. Return to the pool and climb the S ledge. Use the ladder to get the top. Continue S and at the end drop into the hole and pick up the Silver Key from the pedestal. Return to the corridor with the white keyhole, killing another beast in your way and using the rope in the room with the pool. Use the key to open the door to your right and enter. Jump to the W ledge and continue to the end, through the N opening till you see a hole in the floor. Jump to the other side and step on the tile with the omega sign to open the door in front; this is only a shortcut so you can return here if needed. Go back and drop into the hole. If you run off the W edge with grab you'll land in a niche with SECRET #3: a large medipack. Jump into the water and face N. There are two passages; the left passage is the exit so swim through the right one and at the end pull the underwater switch in the E wall near the grate to release a rope at the top of the room. Return to the water hole avoiding a croc (there's a room with air to your left if you need it) and continue S to emerge in a high pool.

 

SIX SWITCHES PUZZLE

 

Now safety drop to ground floor and return to the top of the room via the S stairs like you did before and at the end of the monkeyswing turn right and jump to the central platform. There are six switches here and a pressure pad, but you don't know what switches to pull yet so, approach the E edge and use your binoculars to discover an opening down in S wall. Running jump there with grab to land inside and pull the switch at the end to release another rope at the top of the room. Return to the entrance and take a running jump (no grab) to the W ledge. Go right (N) to pick up a small medipack. Turn around and run all the ledges in a clockwise direction to pick up uzi clips at the end. Drop to the lower ledges and jump to the W ledge. There is an opening in W wall over the Neptune statue; jump there to get SECRET #4: 2 x uzi clips. Jump back to the ledge where you came from and go right in an anticlockwise direction to the SE corner.

 

Use your binoculars to discover a dark opening in E wall. Take a running jump there and use your remaining key to open the door. Pick up the uzis and use the binoculars in the dark hole in S wall to see what switches pull at the top of the room. Safety drop to ground floor and return to the top of the room where the switches are, killing a beast in your way. Now you know what switches to pull so, pull the left and center switches in S side and the center switch in N side. Step on the tile with the omega sign and see a camera shot of a door opening.

 

THE TRIDENTS AND THE STONE OF VAALBARA

 

But don't go there yet. Approach the SE corner and jump to the corridor with the monkeyswing where you came from. Go W, down the stairs, passing the open door and the keyhole and killing another monster on your way, N up the stairs and climb to the upper ledges in W side of the main room. Use the monkeyswing to reach the central ledge, and the ropes you've released (pick up the small medipack on your way), to land on the high NE ledge with the pedestal. Pick up the first Trident and drop to the ledge below. Pick up the flares and the shotgun shells and pull the switch. There's a camera shot showing you some lighted torches near the opening in E wall to release the second rope, but you've already visited that place so, safety descend to ground floor, go S to the place with four holes in the floor and descend through the NW one, follow the path and at the end climb the E ledge to find the open door with the second Trident into the niche. Pick it up and return to the main room.

 

Place the tridents in the statues and see an underwater door opening somewhere. This time you can take the shortcut in the NE corner, climb the stairs to the top and drop into the hole again where you found the fourth secret. Once into the water, take the left passage this time and at the end you'll find the open door. Continue swimming and go out of the water at the end. Advance and see the flyby. Drop to the lower level and pull the lever in E wall to retract the spikes in the pedestal above. Turn around and go W to return to the upper level. Pick up the small medipack and the Stone of Vaalbara.

 

THE ESCAPE

 

Drop again to the lower level, now with shallow waters; shoot the crocs and go W to the corridor with the broken columns; turn right (N) and look for a crawlspace (the flare bug appears again). If Lara refuses to duck, jump once and try again. Follow the path climbing ladders and ledges till you see a flyby with a screenshot of the exit stairs. But it will not be so easy to arrive there. Pick up the small medipack to your left, advance and drop into the hole, slide down a ramp and at the end jump at the last moment to grab the edge of the central platform with four beasts. Hoist up and kill the beasts. Approach the NW corner and take a running jump NW to land on the tile with the circular picture behind the wall. Another running jump to return to the central platform and now approach the N edge and look down to see an open door. Run off the edge with grab to land into the opening below.

 

In the next room, go down the stairs and into the crawlspace in SE corner. Pull the switch in the small room and return to the previous room. Shoot two more beasts and go up the left stairs. Jump to grab the rope and swing to reach the high N ledge. Continue and in the small room with two columns pick up the small medipack from the right pedestal and save your game in front of the small ramp. Slide and jump when sliding before the end of the ramp; run like a fool to avoid the spiked walls, jump without stopping to the next opening and continue running to avoid another set of spiked walls. Climb the ladder and near the top jump back with a twist to grab the ladder behind; climb again and jump back at the end to land in a small opening. Jump to the breakable tiles to the right and from here to the ladder. Continue to a dark room with a hole in SW corner; drop there and pull the switch to cause another earthquake. Return up and there's a new opening in N wall. Enter, go right and follow the path to finally drop at the other side of the big hole you couldn't jump before. Go W and climb the high and dark ledge to your left. Run up the stairs avoiding the falling debris and rolling balls to finish the level at the top.

 

May - 18 - 2009