COMPLEX SIMPLICITY

For Auld Land Syne

Level by Spongebob

Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth, using notes provided by Tom.

After the opening flyby, go left toward the gray statue and once past the house turn right and follow the covered path. Stand in the plant strip near the NW corner and pick up the GREY METAL KEY. You passed the requisite keyhole on the way to the key, but before entering the house go around to the outdoor well and locate the nearby ramp leading down to the cellar. Go there as the pleasant background music changes to an ominous theme. Enter the N passage and be prepared to shoot a couple of baby spiders that come around the corner ahead of you. Pass a closed door and a closed gate to your left. Turn the corner and come to another closed door and a nearby keyhole.

Turn right into the examination room and shoot another baby spider. Go to the S wall and shoot the container near the pillar for two boxes of shotgun ammo. Activate the jump switch on the pillar to open a door nearby. On the way back, watch out for a skeleton spear fence that pops out of the E wall to your right. Out in the hall, turn left and follow the passage to the opened door on your right. Enter the next room and shoot the container next to the S wall for three quivers of crossbow arrows, and the one against the W wall for some revolver ammo. The SHOTGUN is lying on the lower crate in the center of the room. Push the shield in the E wall and exit this room.

Turn left and follow the passage to the end, where the door is now open (didn't need a key for that keyhole after all). Go inside and relieve the skeleton of its SWORD. Exit the cellar (there's a container next to the ramp that you can shoot to release a baby spider if you wish) and open the door to the house with the Grey Metal Key (be patient, it takes its time opening). Enter the chapel and go straight across to the anteroom in the NE corner. Search the coffin for the MYSTIC BOOK.

There's a closed door in the chapel that requires a key, so go back outside and run all the way around to the N side of the house. Locate and activate a jump switch near the misplaced street lamp. You'll hear the sound of a door opening nearby. Go to the grassy area N and pull back the sand box to reveal a couple of TORCHES. Pick up one (noting the opened doorway ahead) and take it around to the cellar, where you can light it from the candlestand near the ramp. Go back to the opened doorway on the N side and enter the house. Drop the torch here and climb up into the window on your right for the REVOLVER. Go upstairs and climb up onto the bookshelf to your right, just past that lovely painting of a reclining woman, and pick up the GOLDEN ORNAMENT KEY.

Enter the sparsely appointed den and light a flare to find two moveable blocks facing each other in the N and S walls near the fireplace. Pull out the N one, climb on top of it and push the shield in the wall. Pull out the S one and add the Sword you're carrying to the wall shield. Go back downstairs, pick up your torch and exit the house. Go around to the left and find an open doorway SW. Enter, go around to your right and shoot the container in the NW alcove for some revolver ammo. Go across the room and light the three upright bales of hay, but be careful lest you be set aflame yourself (there's a shallow pool just outside in case you have an emergency). Then light the large bundle of hay, facing SE, and the floor beneath you collapses to deposit you in a small room where you're immediately attacked by three knights (that is, if you happened to land on the gray tile in the floor; I found that if you stand to the right as you light the large bundle, you can avoid triggering the knights right away and give yourself a few extra seconds to drop your torch and arm yourself for battle).

When the knights have all been vanquished, go to the SW corner of the room and pull down the wall switch to raise a block on that gray floor tile. Use it to jump back out (I took my torch with me, just in case, and left it just outside the door). Go back around to the S side of the house and enter the chapel. Use the Golden Ornament Key to open the door NW. Enter and grab the PINK CRYSTAL from the window. Make another trip back to the N side of the house and drop down into the room where you did battle with the knights. Place the Pink Crystal in the receptacle near the raised block. Lara is brought to her knees and magically transported in a beam of bright light to an outdoor area in broad daylight.

A hostile archer comes forward and starts using his crossbow on you, so take him out and grab the arrows he drops. Loop around to the right, past the hanging square, and approach the N dwelling. You can turn to your left and shoot a grate at the end of the S corridor, but all this appears to do is allow a shortcut via a wall ladder that you don't really need. I also found that a second archer is triggered above you and to the left when you shoot out this grate. At the E side of the house, near the front door, simply jump over the sloped shingles into the water below and pull out onto a ledge near the submerged stone pilings. Look up to your right and you can see a ladder in the wall. Walk toward it and take a running jump over the rocks to its base. Climb to the top and keep the up arrow depressed to transfer Lara to the monkey bars. Turn around and monkey swing forward until you can drop down into an alcove. Use the reach-in switch and you'll be rewarded with the SILVER KEY.

Safety drop from the alcove, turn around and back flip to the slope behind you. Jump off and grab the crack in the piling. Pull up, take a running jump S to the crack in the next piling and shimmy left around one corner. Use the down arrow to cause Lara to turn around and jump to the next piling. Grab the crack, shimmy left around one corner and jump off again to activate the jump switch in the next piling. Swim around and locate a diamond-shaped hole in the N wall. Swim inside and follow the W passage until you can wade out and press a button to open a door to the house.

Go inside and shoot two giant spiders. The N and S passages are spike-trapped, so you can do nothing here at the moment. Return to the water, swim back out and around the house in a counterclockwise direction until you can pull out at a landing marked with ladder rungs. Go up and open the door. Enter, loop around to the right and push open a double door. Pull down the wall switch to release a trap door, note the closed door requiring a key, and use the nearby ladder to climb up to a veranda. Follow the veranda clockwise until you reach an alcove in the W passage to the right of a closed gate, where you can use the Silver Key to open the gate.

Enter and shoot the vulture. Loop around to the right from the entrance and activate the jump switch. Go back out to the veranda, turn left and follow all the way back to where you climbed up here. There's now an opening in the S wall, so enter and pick up a TORCH. Go back around, jump up into the alcove where you just now used the key, and position Lara so that she can light the torch (in the corner, facing slightly left). Hop down and enter the courtyard, and light those bales of hay. One explodes and releases three baby spiders, another reveals the SILVER SKULL KEY, and the third reveals a small medipack.

Go back out to the veranda and jump over the sloped roofing tiles into the water. Swim around to the E side of the house. Near the S corner is a ladder. Wade up to it and climb up to the walkway. You could climb up further, but for now follow the lower walkway N and open the double doors. Grab the large medipack from the raised pedestal and ignore for now the caged spider and nearby wall switch. Use your Silver Door Key to open the door in the N wall and vault up onto the raised pedestal to pick up the MECHANICAL SCARAB WITH KEY. A phantom figure floats behind you and releases the giant spider, so kill it and enter its pen for the SAPPHIRINE BROOCH. The wall switch won't function, so exit this area and turn left. Shoot the container for a small medipack, then reverse roll, go to the other end and climb the next ladder, shift right and drop down onto the upper walkway.

Open the double doors and enter the spartan bedroom. Go to the W wall and pull the lighter-colored sandbag away from the wall to reveal the GREY METAL KEY. Exit and jump back into the water. Swim N toward the stone pilings, and when you reach them face W and locate a small alcove near the sandy floor where you'll find the STONE SKULL KEY. Swim around the house in a counterclockwise direction and pull out at the familiar landing. Climb the steps and enter the house. Use the Stone Skull Key in the next room. The nearby door doesn't open, but now you have access to the only SECRET in this level. Get up on the ladder and back flip into an alcove for a large medipack and a small medipack.

Return to the top of the landing and face SE. You can see the railing of another balcony around the corner. I understand it's possible to reach it from here with a difficult banana jump, curving to your right, but I was not able to do this. An alternate way is to climb back up the nearby shaft to the veranda, go around clockwise to the E side, look down over the roofing shingles until you see a wooden mast jutting out below. Back flip onto the shingles at that point, slide down and grab the edge, pull up and use the "fall back and glide" technique (holding down the action key after you clear the edge) to land on the balcony below. Pick up the small medipack and use the Grey Metal Key to open the door. Shoot the container, if you wish, to release a baby spider, then pick up the CROSSBOW (a little late, I'm afraid, to be of much use).

Get back into the water and swim back to the stone pilings. Enter the diamond-shaped opening in the wall and swim back to where you killed two giant spiders earlier. Use the Mechanical Scarab With Key to disable the spikes in the N and S passages, picking up the scarab each time and then pulling down the wall switch at the end of the passage. Blocks have been raised in the center of the room, so climb up to the upper ledge and activate the jump switch in the W wall. The doors below open, releasing that phantom you saw earlier. Kill it and enter the small W room. Search the coffin for the RUBY BROOCH. Don't pull down the wall switch, as this will only close your exit door.

Go back to the water, swim counterclockwise back to the landing you've used several times already, pull out, enter the house and climb all the way up the shaft to the veranda. Follow the veranda to the hanging square and use the two brooches in the large receptacles in the W wall to open the huge doors. Enjoy the flyby and then enter the doorway to end the level.