COMPLEX SIMPLICITY

COMPLEX SIMPLICITY

The Keeper Of The Seven Keys

Level by Greywolf

Walkthrough by José

[Note:] At the very beginning, you can turn left, open the small wooden door and shoot the brown boxes in the floor to get the SHOTGUN 'cause it can be useful to deal with the many enemies you'll find in the game from now. But nothing more to do here until you open the wooden trapdoor in the middle of the room later. Also I must give credits to Drakan, Michael and Tom 'cause this walkthrough should never be completed without them. Many thanks![End note]

THE SWORD

Advance S to the big arch and shoot the baddies there. Look in the floor for a small handle and open the stone trapdoor facing E. Jump into the water and open with your hands the underwater brown door in the NE corner. Continue diving through the passage picking up shotgun, uzi and revolver ammos on your way and go out of the water at the end where you'll find a knight riding a horse. When he's dead you can pick up the SWORD he leaves. Take notice of the big doors with four keyholes around it. You'll be back here at the very end of the level. Return

to the main courtyard.

THE SILVER KEY

Now go through the passage behind the W arches; at the bottom of the spiral staircases crawl to get shotgun ammo and in the next corridor shoot the black spectrums. In the room with a deep pit and high pillars with coloured textures in its tops I couldn't find a hint to know what pillars were safe so I had to do it with trial and error. Jump in this order: S - S - E (this last deactivates the spikes in the green pillar) - return W - S - SW (blue) - SE (purple) and jump to pick up the SILVER KEY. Shoot more spectrums if you want and return to the main courtyard picking up the shotgun ammo which magically appeared in the yellow pillar near the E wall.

THE STRANGELY KEY

Now go through the opening in SE corner, shoot the armors there to get some goodies and in the room with the small mirror notice that there's a hole in the NW corner of this small room. Jump there facing S and push the button to see a camera showing you a closed trapdoor somewhere (1/3). Go back to the mirror and pick up the small medipack over the ledge; notice that the small medipack behind the mirror doesn't disappear so go through the mirror to the other side and pick it up. In this room behind the mirror climb the hole in the ceiling in SW corner to find a large medipack, uzi ammo and OCULAR PART 1 in a crawlspace above.

Return to ground floor and go through the E passage up the stairs. In the room with the shields in the walls there are a small medipack and several torches in a corner. Let the torches here for later and push the shield in E wall to lower a block at the end of the NE crawlspace. Crawl in and at the other side you find yourself in the gardens around the castle. Advance till you find another knight on his horse; when he's dead you can pick up the STRANGELY KEY. At the end of the path you can find a large medipack and uzi ammo in the small hut where the knight came from. Ignore the ladders and return to the main courtyard the way you came, carrying a torch with you.

THE STONE SKULL KEY

Now go up the stairs near the very beginning and open the first door you find, enter in a small library and shoot the boxes to pick up some goodies and kill small spiders. Go out and continue up the stairs to the first floor, throw the torch in a safe place and remember where it is; use the sword in the shield in E wall to open the small doors. In the library, pick up shotgun and uzi ammos and light a flare or use the binoculars at the end in S wall to discover a moveable block. Pull it out and aside and enter to get SECRET #1: small medipack, crossbow explossive arrows and the uzis; also pick up the MYSTIC BOOK with important information on how to get the next key. Go outside, left and a bit right over the wooden floor; shoot the small spider, pick up the uzi ammo and press the button in the pillar to your right (camera showing you a closed trapdoor somewhere (2/3)).

Continue W and open the small double doors in front of you and the next ones too. You're now in a room with 5 moveable armors; it's time to read the Mystic Book:

- Five armours to line up.

- Blue is near to red.

- Yellow is as far from blue on the right, as green is from purple on the left.

- There's an armour between red and green.

- Yellow isn't the first on the right.

Once you solve the enigma, you realize that the positions of the armors are, from left to right and facing the E wall: red - blue - green - yellow - purple. When you move the armors, try to not place or move them over the marked tiles except in their correct positions, manage them only over the checkered tiles before placing them in their correct positions, or the door perhaps will not open. Once the door is open, enter and after picking up the STONE SKULL KEY shoot a bunch of enemies. Pick up the remaining items and return to the main courtyard.

THE TORCH PUZZLE

I expect you know where you left your torch, so pick it up and go up the stairs to the second floor. The doors open automatically and two new spectrums are released; you know what to do. In the small chapel at S side of this balcony you can get the CROWBAR. Next to this entrance, push the shield to open the nearby doors to your right, inside, you can get a small medipack, shotgun ammo and the REVOLVER; light your torch here. Now go to the E room where the princess is. In this room there are four wall torches to light and a fireplace. Some people had problems here when lighting the objects so I'm going to give two solutions that worked in my game:

1 - Light the fireplace and all the wall torches except the torch near the fireplace.

2 - Light all the objects in this order: first, light the wall torch in the room where the princess is in SE corner; second, light the other wall torch in the same room; third, go to the N room and light the E wall torch first; fourth, light the remaining N wall torch in the same room; fifth, return to the S room with the princess and (carefully) light the fireplace.

Once the puzzle is correctly solved, a door opens somewhere in another area of the castle (for later). Also, in the room where the princess is there is a button in NW corner; push it (3/3) to finally see the trapdoor opening somewhere.

THE GREY METAL KEY

Now go N and open the double wooden doors. Now you have two choices:

1- You can take a detour for some extra items and prepare the way to get a secret later (optional). In this case you can run against the N fence and jump over the battlements to land onto the N platform. Now you can turn right (E) and jump over the battlements to land over the top wall of the castle and run all the way E and S to pick up uzi ammo at the end. Drop-grab the edge and safety drop to ground floor and return N and W to the place after the well where the big double gates are. Behind the W vines there is a ladder you can use to climb a bit and jump back to land onto the N castle wall with the battlements. Run W and S to the very end to pick up shotgun shells in the corner. Normally, a bowman will begin to shoot you from the high E tower. Go back the way you came over the W wall running N while the archer is still shooting you and Lara is losing health, but only to a place where you have an angle to point with your crossbow and sight with explossive arrows to the top of the tower. You can't see the enemie, but if you shoot to the middle of the battlements, hopefully you'll kill the bowman and it will give you access to a secret later. It was easier for me than shooting that bowman from the bells tower as I will explain later. Once the bowman is dead, go down to ground floor and use the very long ladder in the N side of this garden to reach the high belfry.

2- Pick up the uzi ammo and go up the spiral staircases and quickly up the ladder to shoot the bowman who leaves the CROSSBOW. Now go to the S side, facing N drop, grab the edge and shimmy to the left to grab the ladder. Climb down to the roofs area and shoot a lot of enemies there; one of them will leave you the LASERSIGHT and another one a small medipack; also there is uzi ammo in the N side. Return to the belfry and to the W side, approach as close as you can to the ladder in the N pillar and position Lara facing S-SW. There's another archer in the top of the SW tower; combine crossbow + sight and shoot him with explosive ammo a bit up of his head till he dies (you'll have to be lucky, it's very difficult). If you return to the second floor of the castle, you'll get a camera shot of the OCULAR PART 2 in the room where the crowbar was; go there and pick it up (thank you, Michael). Return to the tower and climb the four exterior ladders (drop, grab the edge and shimmy) to the very top. Each time you arrive there it seems that the floor lever you find is the same, but in fact, there are four different levers and when you pull all four, a door opens below at ground floor in the exterior gardens (thank you again, Drakan). Go back there via the exterior long ladders in NE or NW pillars of the belfry and pick up the GREY METAL KEY. Return to the main courtyard via the crawlspace-torches room-mirror room like you did before.

THE LITTLE BRONZE KEY

Now open the NW door with the crowbar and in the next room shoot a bunch of small spiders. There are three crawlspaces here. In the SE crawlspace I found SECRET #2: a large medipack and shotgun shells. In the NE crawlspace I found nothing. In the S crawlspace, pick up the small medipack and after dealing with the steam emitters, pick up the shotgun shells and the LITTLE BRONZE KEY, kill a giant spider and return to the main courtyard.

THE GOLD ORNAMENT KEY

Now it's time to go through the trapdoor we opened with the three buttons some time ago. Open the small door in NE corner, kill the small spiders and shoot the boxes in the floor to pick up a lot of goodies and the SHOTGUN if you have not already done that before. Go through the open trapdoor and pick up the small medipack. It seems that you'll lose a lot of health going through the circular blades corridor, but it's possible to pass without damage (I did it, so it can't be so difficult). Position Lara with her back against the N wall and walk two steps ahead (right side of the tile); now time the blade so it's in the left position and take a standing jump in the very right side; you can save the next blade running a bit from the left side and the last blade taking a standing jump when it's in the left side. Pick up the flares and time the next rotating blades. In the room with the barrels take care of the horizontal spiked trap, light a flare and shoot the box in the niche to your left to get crossbow arrows; look up and jump to grab the edge of the crawlspace there to get SECRET #3: crossbow arrows and a small medipack. Judge the swinging blades in the next room and in the mirror room look to the mirror to see what pillars are safe (the yellow ones) to reach the other side and get the GOLD ORNAMENT KEY. If you don't want to get the next secret, you can ignore the next paragraph and return to the main courtyard.

ONLY FOR A SECRET:

Take a standing jump to the safe SW pillar near the mirror; position Lara in the very SW corner of this tile and turn left to face S-SE; use the binoculars to spot the ladder in the far N wall near the corner (thank you, Tom), behind the dangerous pillar. Return to the previous safe pillar in front of the niche where the key was; position Lara in the very S edge and facing N; take a standing jump to grab the edge of the dangerous pillar, shimmy around two corners and (this N face of the pillar is climbable) jump back with twist to grab the invisible ladder behind you. At the bottom of the pit you'll find SECRET #4: uzi clips, shotgun ammo, a large medipack and flares. Returning is a bit tricky: go back to the ladder and climb only to the end of the grey bricks; now climb only two more steps to the beginning of the white texture and backflip with twist to grab the climbable surface of the dangerous pillar behind you. Now here comes the trick: save the game with the F5 key, reload the game and use the up arrow so Lara climbs step by step to the bottom of the pillar, counting the steps Lara does; when she is in the edge hoisting up to the top of the pillar, reload and climb only the exact steps so she is grabbing the edge at the very top of the invisible dangerous pillar; now release Ctrl key and immediately grab and shimmy around two corners so she finally is hanging from the S side of the dangerous pillar; now use the down arrow key to land onto the safe pillar behind her. Return to the main courtyard the way you came.

THE LAVA ROOM AND THE JUWEL KEY

Now it's time to go to the door we opened a long time ago when using the torch. Go to the S side of the courtyard where the open stone trapdoor is, and jump into the water. Behind the first E pillar there is an underwater switch (top), but it's timed. Pull it and quickly dive to the underwater W door before it closes. Once out of the water, run over the breakable tiles to the other side, pass the smashing pillars shooting the small spiders on your way and at the end push the shield to raise some blocks in the path you came from so you can return later. Enter into the lava room and, after the flyby, turn right and use your crossbow or revolver + sight to shoot the grate in E wall to release a boulder which will kill a dragon. Turn left and shoot the grates in W wall to release two more boulders which will kill more dragons.

Once the place is safer, jump to the right block, jump to the next ledge and grab the crack, shimmy left and around the corner to the end, jump to grab the upper edge and hoist up; pick up the crossbow arrows, grab the monkeyswing and move yourself to the very end. Pick up the uzi ammo and deal with two giant spiders. Pick up the shotgun shells in front of the pedestal and combine the two ocular pieces to create the SMARADG OCULAR and open the door behind you. Go there to find SECRET #5: 2 x revolver ammo, 2 x shotgun shells, large medipack and 2 x crossbow arrows. Go outside and to your right (E); pick up the small medipack and approach to the door to open it. Grab the monkeyswing and advance S to drop onto a rocky ledge (pick up the shotgun shells there). From here you can take a running jump E to the central ledge to pick up the JUWEL KEY. Exit this lava room, go through the smashing pillars, use the raised blocks to reach the other side of the spiked pit and jump into the water.

THE HELMET

When you reach the underwater room with high pillars, turn left (N) and dive through the NE opening passage like you did before in the first steps of this level when you went for the sword. Use four keys in its keyholes to open the big double doors and deal with two giant spiders. Use your three remaining keys in the next keyholes to open the next big double doors. In the next room, shoot a bunch of spectrums and climb the central ledge to pick up the HELMET and finish this awesome level.

July - 17 - 2010.