Recovering the Scion Part 1 – Cairo City

Level by levyhgb

Walkthrough by dmdibl (David Dibble)

Using DOSBox to Play TR1

Many people ignore custom TR1 levels, even the handful of good levels. But if you ever want to replay the original Tomb Raider—or experience it for the first time—then you will have an installation for also playing custom levels.

DOSBox should be used to play TR1 with Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, or Linux, and the installation is simple. The current version as of this writing is DOSBox 0.74, available from www.dosbox.com. The author's previous TR1 level, Return To Rome, has a walkthrough which gives additional information on DOSBox, which I won't repeat here. These TR1 levels are set up to play with no CD, so can be played directly.

Walkthrough Starts

Drop into water, swim forward into a larger area. There is a lot to see here, so it would be nice to look around, but a crocodile is homing in on Lara. Normally Lara would swim around and find a ledge to pull out onto, but all sides of this pool are too high to climb. No exit, no way to climb out, crocodile getting closer....

Swim left, toward a wall with a couple of large figures on the side of a structure Lara wants to enter. Swim around a corner right of the figures, see an underwater opening left, and swim inside. High in the back right, around a corner, is an underwater lever; pull it.

Flee Crocodile

Get a screenshot of a door opening. Swim back to where Lara first entered this pool, find two holes in the bottom. Swim down either hole, and take a passageway where a door opened. Pull out on a ledge straight ahead. Lara could now turn and shoot the crocodile, but usually he is too smart to follow. Sometimes he shows up later on.

Where Lara pulls out of water there is a push block very close to her left. Wait before pushing it. Go opposite that block to find a large medipack on a ledge. Pull up to get it. Then jump forward to a block besides spikes, turn right, and hop upward; avoid falling into large gaps which have spikes at their bottom. Pull up at top. To Lara's left is a closed golden door for a short time later. To her right is a push block.

High and Low Push Blocks

Push the block away twice, pick up 2x shotgun ammo. Push the block three more times, mostly to get it out of the way. Now turn left and make a jump to a high ledge across the way. In the far corner find a push block, push it twice into the room beyond.

Surprise! A hungry black panther is waiting. Turn around and run back outside to where Lara can leap to the ledge in the center of this area. From this safe vantage turn around, shoot the panther with pistols. Jump back to his ledge, go into the room and search it for a shotgun. (Lara usually checks under push blocks, but there is nothing.)

On the ledge outside, hang and drop from its low point. Remember that shortcut weapon keys don't work in TR1. To select the shotgun, press ESC, use arrow keys to rotate the ring, and select with enter. Now Spacebar will shoulder or arm Lara with the shotgun.

Push in the ground floor block twice. In the next room two panthers come leaping toward Lara. Climbing onto the push block for protection doesn't work as the panthers will get up there with her. So Lara can either try shooting them with shotgun—it takes about two blasts for each—or she can roll, run back outside, and leap up onto the ledge where she picked up a large medipack. It's safe to stand there and shoot panthers with pistols.

Go into the panthers' room, to the right wall to pick up magnum clips. On the way back to the entrance note a high wall lever (golden texture). Push the block under the lever, climb up, and use it for a screenshot of a golden door opening at the end of the central ledge. Go outside, climb back up as Lara did before, and at the top enter the open door.

The Mummy's Key

Go diagonally left to get on a low mound. This seems to protect Lara from a mummy that is here. Shoot it with pistols until it explodes. Then go to a corner of the room—on entering here, this would be straight left. Use the wall lever, for a screenshot of a higher door opening in this room.

Stand on the same mound that Lara used to shoot the mummy. Aim diagonally for the low corner of the blue textured rocks, as though Lara were aiming for the higher open door. Do a running jump up, no grab, then STOP. Those are trapdoors on the floor, and when Lara steps on them they collapse over spikes. Jump up left, and from here Lara can make a straight running jump (with Ctrl) into the open doorway.

Follow a passage around in a U, push in a block, and pick up a Key to the left. Return, jump over the spikes. Straight ahead is a broken bridge. Do a running jump/grab across to the far side. Turn left, do a running jump/grab to a pillar. From here do a running jump to a pillar ahead (by wall lever).

First Secret

Now Lara can see the starting pool. Below her feet, in the center of spikes, are goodies. Lara can back up on her pillar, and make a standing jump down, but this costs a little health. Or she can aim for a slope to the right of the goodies, and slide down to them. For Secret #1, pick up shotgun ammo and large medipack.

To get out, face away from the low slope Lara used. Walk into the spikes, turn left, jump to grab, pull up, and back flip from the slope to a pillar behind. Turn around. Jump down into a fenced area at the starting pool, go left to a keyhole on the wall.

Open Underwater Door

Use your key. Get a screenshot of a door opening underwater. This door is in the middle of the wall to Lara's right as she stands at the keyhole. Climb the rocks here and before doing anything else shoot the obnoxious crocodile if you haven't already done so.

Jump over the fence into the pool. Swim between statues through the newly opened door into another area, and pull out onto a ledge ahead. While Lara admires the view a crocodile swims up behind her. Turn around and shoot it. Turn back to face the central pillar.

Two Higher Openings

Now to Lara's right there is a push block. Ahead on the far wall there are two openings. Pull, then push the block toward that far wall, into the corner, then pull the block twice to the side. This way the block is between the two wall openings, and doesn't have to be repositioned.

Hop onto the block. You can see that the door is open for the left wall opening, so do a running jump/grab there. Pause inside the doorway, notice an ominous boulder hanging over Lara's head. Run under it and nothing happens. Use a wall lever at the end right, get a screenshot of a door. (There is a mummy waiting on the other side of a metal fence. Go closer to see that there is a key at its feet.) Run back out under the boulder and again nothing happens.

At the doorway drop into water, swim down. In the middle of the central structure, opposite a dark banded wall texture, is a slot to swim into, for Secret #2 pick up shotgun ammo. Swim out and left around the corner, find a similar opening here in the middle of the central structure. Swim into the slot, use an underwater lever ahead for a screenshot of doors closing and opening where Lara was. Get out, and back up onto the push block. In the wall the door opened for the right opening, so do a running jump/grab there.

Again run under a boulder, and throw another wall lever. No screenshot this time, but an entirely different door opened. This time exit with a jump from the doorway to the ledge. Move the push block completely around to the other side, to where a door opened in the wall.

The Path Onward

But don't climb up and jump to that opening yet, as it leads back to the starting pool where keys are needed. Instead jump into the water, swim into that slot that leads to an underwater lever. Swim down past the lever, along a passage, and surface in a new room.

When Lara pulls out, it is okay to look around this room as there is much to find, but don't go near shotgun ammo in the middle. See a trapdoor in the corner of this room. Step on it, it collapses under her, dropping her into water. Swim down and continue to another room, pull up onto blocks to the left for a small medipack. Apparently just finding this is counted as Secret #3. A first push block is here. Pull it back, and push it against the wall where the small medipack was.

Big Secret

Turn around to get 2x shotgun ammo and 2x Uzi clips. Pull back twice a second block that is besides the metal grate. That is as much as Lara can do, so go to a third push block on the right and push it forward once.

Now Lara can continue with the second push block, shoving it against the first one, out of the way next to the waterhole. Now pull back the third push block, so that it ends up at its original position. Behind this block pick up Uzis. All these pickups seem to count as Secret #4.

Boulder Trap

Swim back to the previous room, and pull out of the water. Stand still. Look toward the middle of this room at shotgun ammo. That is a trap. A rolling ball will crush Lara if she tries to pick up the ammo. To the left of the ammo is a push block. Lara wants to move that block toward herself, meaning that she has to get around on the opposite side of the block and push it. To get over to the other side don't step on the square that has the ammo, but skirt it to the right or left. Then push the block.

Turn left and run over a corner of the square with the ammo, running off to the side. A boulder drops, rolls down the slope, and falls into the entrance waterhole. Now it is okay to pick up shotgun ammo.

Pillar Jump

Then face up the slope (I'm trying to avoid using compass directions, as TR1 compass can be confusing). Go up, then right to a back corner of this room. Behind a pillar find a wall lever to use. Get a similar screenshot to the one Lara saw before, but this time the door [above] opens.

Look up. Lara wants to get on top this pillar. Now you see why the push block was moved in this direction, instead of to the other side. Climb up on the push block. Set up a diagonal jump toward that pillar. Do a running jump, curve left and grab the pillar edge, pull up.

Panther's Key

This might be a good time to equip Lara with shotgun. Pull up to a higher room and shoot a crocodile. Be careful as there is a central hole on one side, as well as a corner hole that Lara just pulled out of. It is easy to fall into the holes while jumping away from enemies.

Go to the other side of the golden screens from the hole that Lara just climbed out of, across the room. Enter a wall opening and climb up blocks. Run to the end, past a golden door, and use a left wall lever. Immediately whip out shotgun and shoot a panther. If you are fast enough two shots will kill it before it does real damage to Lara.

Go through the open golden door and drop down, get a nice screenshot of Lara inside an enclosure of the central pillar in the water room. Pick up a Key.

Get out, and hop down the series of blocks, but don't leap blindly into the lower room. A mummy and panther are cavorting, and if Lara waits in the wall alcove she can shoot them with pistols. When safe, step into the room. There are cat statues enclosed in golden screens. Between them is a hole you don't want to fall into (this was where the boulder trap was set). Carefully hop over the hole into an open door.

Panthers, Slopes, and Spikes

Draw pistols and go slowly up the stairs. When the mummy comes to life back up and keep firing with pistols until it explodes.

Turn right from the top of the stairs, where Lara finds herself at the top of a slope with two panthers at the bottom. Slide down the center of the slope to land on a square where Lara can stand. From here it is easy to shoot the panthers with pistols. Once the bottom is clear, make a running jump/grab from this square to sail over spikes.

Get out shotgun. Start to go forward and left toward the stairs, but wait for a panther to come bounding down. Shoot it. Go up the stairs, around corners, pick up Uzi clips in the first alcove, and in the second alcove by a mummy get a second Key. You expect the mummy to attack ferociously when Lara touches the key, but it doesn't.

Instead go halfway down the stairs, and drop to the ground. Use a wall lever here, and this brings the mummy to life. Shoot if from below with pistols. Lara is safe if she doesn't go to the top of the stairs at its level.

Return With Keys

Get back to the spike area. Pull the block out, then get behind it and push it straight into the first rank of spikes. Jump onto the block. It looks as though Lara has a difficult jump, trying to reach that safe square in the middle of the slope. Actually, the right side of the slope against the wall is now safe, having changed when Lara used the wall lever. Turn diagonally right and make a running jump there.

Go up the slope, then left down the stairs. Hop over the hole. Go left and drop down onto a pillar, and then to the floor. Get to the waterhole where the boulder fell (avoid it), and swim back to the underwater lever and out the slot. Climb out of the water.

Get onto the push block that Lara previously positioned, and jump to the opening in the wall. Run through, drop down over the starting pool area. Be careful not to fall into water as the sides are too high for Lara to pull out again. Jump to the fenced walkway.

On one side use a key in a keyhole, get a shot of a closed door on the right. On the other side use a wall lever. Get a screenshot of two boulders dropping—one of them rolls away through an open door. Was this lever supposed to deactivate a trap? A bit belated. Anyway, turn right and run to the fence to see that a door in the middle of that side wall is now open.

Not So Clear Passage

Drop into water and swim there. Pull out on the first square. Walk to the second and third squares. Now roll onto the fourth square, run back out, and jump into water to the side. A boulder rolls down behind Lara and into the water.

Get back into the doorway, get out shotgun or Uzis, go up to the top. Shoot a lurking panther. Ahead of Lara is a spike field, but the trapdoors won't open if she walks over them. Over her head when she enters there is a secret pickup.

Go up the left stairs, at the top stand jump/grab an overhead block. Make a running jump/grab straight ahead, as the trapdoor that is diagonally right will collapse if Lara tries to use it to reach the goodies on the right, over the entrance. Use your key in the keyhole on the next step.

The Last Secret

Turn right. The trapdoor is still a death trap, so pull up higher on a block. Go forward, make a running jump to blue textured stone over the goodies, and continue clockwise around the room to a wall lever. Use it, see a screenshot of a floor trapdoor opening, and a panther running through spikes.

From a corner of the ledge Lara can shoot the panther with Uzis—might as well get some use out of them. (It is clear from the title that the author intends a continuation, which is why this walkthrough conserves ammo rather than squandering it.)

It is possible to jump to the goodies over the entrance from here. Aim to their left, make a running jump, curve hard right and hit Ctrl at the last moment (or at least hit Ctrl before Lara bashes into stone). For Secret #5, pick up small medipack and Uzi clips. Now make a running jump out to the side, to land near a wall, away from spikes.

Open the Exit

Walk into the spike field to the open trapdoor. Stand opposite the side where the trapdoor fell, Lara's back to the hole, and drop back and grab. Let go and quickly grab again before Lara falls to her death.

Climb inside. It is dark here but at Lara's feet are Uzi clips. Use the wall lever. A screenshot shows a door opening above where the keyhole is. Continue to the second trapdoor that is now open. Pull out and walk through spikes.

Go up the stairs, make a standing jump/grab to the block, and a running jump/grab across. The door opened onto a slope. As Lara starts to slide the level ends.

Kills 17

Pickups 22

Secrets 5 of 3

Time Taken 31:19

The pickups are 7 shotgun ammo, 1 magnum clip, 5 Uzi clips, 2 small medipack, 2 large medipack, shotgun, Uzis, 3 keys.

15 June 2012