20 x 20 x 20 Challenge – Lara’s Mansion

 

Level built by: Klona

 

Walkthrough by Nina Croft

 

Secrets: 3 (special thank to Klona who helped me find all three secrets)

 

AREA 1: FOYER: When the level starts, we see an overview of the foyer of Lara's big house. When you make a few steps forwards, you will see that a ghost is dropping a key on the floor in front of Lara and then disappearing in one of the rooms above. Pick up the SILVER KEY, as well as some flares ("glowing sticks") near the table to the right, and a DIARY from the floor near the clock. You can read that Caroline cannot find the key to the guest room although she left in the keyhole. Go up the stairs and use the key in the left-most keyhole to open the door. There are two more doors in the corridor here, the one to the right is locked and if you stand a second or two in front of the left door, it will kindly open for you.

 

GUEST ROOM: In the first guest room the door will close behind Lara and a ghost will start giggling. Go around the bed and crawl into the alcove. The ghost will take the key from the alcove. A bit farther you'll find another DIARY, where a certain Muriel talks about her mentally ill sister who used to talk to herself. Return back to the room and pull the cabinet standing in the opposite corner, to find the WOODEN KEY where the ghost hid it from you. Go around the bed and open the door just next to it. Find another box of flares in the shower to the left and use the JS directly above the entrance to open the door leading back to the corridor. Leave this guest room. The key you have just found cannot be used anywhere as yet, so return to the main gallery and jump over the low fence onto the chandelier. There you will find the second WOODEN KEY. Use it in the keyhole of the right-hand door in the small corridor.

 

MESSY GUEST ROOM: In a guest room room full of boxes first find yet another DIARY, this time Matthias's, where he speaks about his cousins who died on the Titanic in 1912. After that he bought this large mansion but nevertheless decided to move into a smaller home later. Return to the entrance door and open another door which is now on your left. Enter a small bathroom and climb into the crawlspace to the left. Inside you'll find the second SILVER KEY. Return to the main gallery and open the middle door with this key.

 

GUEST LIVING ROOM: As soon as you enter, a portrait above the fireplace will call Lara and tell her that she should leave the house immediately. Some strange creatures (ghosts) are lurking around, and if she nonetheless decides to stay, she should avoid dark places. The creatures love dark places and cannot be repelled by her glowing sticks (flares). After this chat, you'll find a box of flares in the corner between two sofas. Also notice a button in the fireplace behind the flame. Then unlock the door opposite the entrance with the first wooden key you found.

 

ANTEROOM AND WARDROBE: As soon as you enter, stand against the white-brick wall in the right corner (the entrance is behind Lara) and press Action. Lara will say "No", meaning that this is a door for which you need a crowbar. Remember this location and go to the left. At the end of the anteroom you can open the door. Enter the wardrobe. Climb onto the lower block to the left and jump to grab the edge of the closet to the right. Climb up and find SMALL WATERSKIN there.

 

AREA KEY: Now return to the main gallery and go right into the small corridor. Enter the storage and then the small bathroom to the right. There you can fill the waterskin with water in the small shower. Return once again to the guest living room, approach the burning fireplace and choose the waterskin from your Inventory. Use it to extinguish the fire, go around and press the button in the fireplace to lower a block to the right. Go there and pick up the AREA KEY. Leave the room and go back to the toilet where you filled the waterskin. Do that once again, in order to avoid backtracking later. Return to the main gallery. Down the stairs and use the key in the keyhole next to the door on the ground floor.

 

AREA TWO: HALLWAYS: As soon as you enter, you'll notice two locked doors at the end of the hallway to the right and one to the left. Go right to the fork and turn left. Notice two more closed doors. At the next fork the corridor to the right leads to a door you can open, but this door leads to a locked door, so wait a bit with this route. Go left and open the door leading to the small corridor. You will pass by two more locked doors. Before you turn right at the corner, open the door straight ahead and enter the storage. In the STORAGE jump across the boxes in the back corner and find a WOODEN KEY hidden behind. Return to the corridor and go left. There are two doors here you can open, but the door to the right is deadly. So open the door to the TOILET, find a cabinet in the far left corner and pull it away from the wall to find box of flares hidden beneath it. Also, make sure to take the CROWBAR from the wall on the right (when facing the entrance).

 

FIRST SECRET: Now you can go and retrieve the first secret. So, return to the previous area, go up the stairs and through the door in the middle of the main gallery. Enter the doorway opposite the entrance and in the antechamber open that white-brick door with the crowbar (NW corner). Inside the alcove you'll find the FIRST GOLDEN ROSE. Take it and return to the second area. Turn right, proceed to the end of the corridor and open the door to the right with the key you found in the Storage.

 

MYSTERIOUS ROOM: Find the movable block in the near left corner and push/pull it to the central construction to stand below the pillar where one block is missing. The point is to make this room symmetrical again (thank to _Manarch2 for this tip).This will open a door back in the hallways. Pick up some flares near the far left corner before you leave. Once back into the hallway, go left, turn right at the fork and enter the open door to the right.

 

BALLROOM: Pick up the flares from the floor to the right of the fire. Use the filled waterskin to extinguish the fire. This will lower two blocks in the near left and near right corners of the ballroom and raise a block at the entrance. Also, the portrait above the entrance will speak again, telling Lara that she should have not put out this fire. The ghosts love the darkness. He is also a bit angry for what she did. Once the dialogue is finished, be quick, as the ballroom is now haunted. You can see where the ghosts are, as their shadow is visible on the floor. When they touch Lara, she will lose quite a bit of her energy. However, Lara's energy will replenish spontaneously, so don't panic. Run into the alcove that is to the right of the entrance (when facing it) and find yet another WOODEN KEY. In the other alcove you'll find a JS that lowers the block at the entrance. Return to the hallway where you are safe from ghosts. Go right, turn left at the fork and unlock the door to the right (just in front of the Storage).

 

MUSIC ROOM: Once you're in, the block will raise and close the entrance. Find a SILVER KEY near the piano. A few seconds later, One book will start flying and chasing Lara. Remember, your energy replenishes itself automatically, so don't panic. More books will attack you, run around the room to avoid them until the piano stops playing. Soon after that the raising block will lower and you can leave the room to unlock the door across the corridor and go through.

 

LIBRARY: Enter the library where camera is fixed. As usual, the entrance will be blocked by a raising block. Go around between the bookshelves to the end of the room to find a button that lowers that raised block at the entrance and opens a door back in the corridor. Three ghosts will chase you along the way. Leave the library, go right in the corridor, turn right at the fork, and enter the opened door across the ballroom (now the door on the right).

 

DINING ROOM: Find a box of flares on the floor behind the right-hand table. Then push/pull the vase between the tables so that it stands in the near left corner. This will open one door back in the corridor. Leave the dining room, go right, turn right at the fork and run all the way to the end, where the door opened.

 

KITCHEN: Pick up some flares from the floor behind the ladder and open the door to the left from the entrance. In the CHEF'S ROOM be as quick as possible, as a ghost is chasing you. Go around the bed and in the far left corner find a concealed door you can open with the crowbar. Inside the alcove you will find the second AREA KEY. Go around the bed, open the door of the small bathroom and you can fill your waterskin in the shower. Leave the Chef's room and the Kitchen. Once in the corridor, go straight ahead to the fork, turn left, on the next fork turn right, open the door at the end of the hallway and go up the stairs. Unlock the door at the top of stairs. NOTE: One door in the AREA 1 remained closed and one door in the AREA 2 remained locked. We will return there later.

 

AREA THREE: HALLWAYS: As you enter, go straight forward, do not turn left as yet, but instead, enter the SMALL KITCHEN at the end of the hallway. Another ghost will attack Lara, so be quick. Find a raised crawlspace in the SW corner and pick up WOODEN KEY from it. Return to the hallway, turn right at the fork and unlock the door on the right.

 

BEDROOM: Enter the small bedroom and first go to the right. Approach a night stand by the bed and press Action to open the drawer. Lara will find Melody's DIARY where she wrote that IT (presumably a ghost) has spoken to her and begged her to play with it. It invited her to the basement, but Melody was too afraid to go there. Once you read the text press ESC to close it and find a concealed crowbar door next to the clock. Pick up yet another SILVER KEY from the alcove (no, by no means should you think that chase for keys will be over any soon... Patience...). Return to the corridor, go right and turn left at the fork. Unlock the door at the end of the corridor and go up the stairs to two doors. Do not open the door at Lara's right, as it is not only fake, but lethal as well. Open the door on the left, enter yet another corridor with more doors to unlock or open. WALK along this hallway to avoid falling through a concealed opening to the lower level and to avoid backtracking. Simply jump over and proceed. At the fork, do not open the fake door straight ahead unless you want to put Lara out of her misery :)

 

So, turn left at the fork and find Frederick's DIARY on the floor near the window. Frederick says that he was one day on the balcony, his brother called him, Frederick went to find him but his brother was not there any more. Frederick could not find him even after hours of search. When he finally found Frederick and asked him why he had called him, his brother answered that he had been somewhere else all day. Great, so the house likes to play games with us :)  When you pick up this diary, the door nearby will open. Enter the BEDROOM WITH TWO BEDS, avoid the ghost as best as you can, and open another door in the corner. Enter a small bathroom and find SECOND GOLDEN ROSE in the bath tub behind the curtain. Flip the JS between and above two wash bins to open a door elsewhere. Return to the corridor.

 

BEDROOMS: Go right and don't turn into the corridor on the left. At the next fork turn right, jump over the invisible hole in the floor, go through the open door at the end of the hallway and down the stairs. Go straight ahead as you enter the corridor, don't turn right at the fork and jump over another concealed hole in the floor. Enter the BEDROOM through the open door on the left. Search the drawer to the right of the bed to find another Muriel's DIARY. This time she says that she is tired of her sister screaming every night. However, her sister swears that she never screamed. I believe we all already concluded that the house is haunted :) Push the vase near this night stand into the corner on the marked tile, then go to the door opposite the entrance and open it. In a small bathroom there is a JS just to the left. Use it to open a door back in the corridor, but before you return there, go to the bathing area of the bathroom. To the left there is a cabinet. Squeeze between this cabinet and wall, then between the second cabinet and the wall, and enter another bathroom. Open the door leading to another bedroom. Search the nearest drawer to find Salvatore's DIARY. He moved into this house with his 8-year-old daughter Melody to investigate why some people disappeared mysteriously in the neighborhood. Pull away the vase standing in SW corner to find THIRD GOLDEN ROSE. Find a button on the wall behind the second night stand and press it to temporarily open a door nearby. Run into the corridor, go left, then turn right at the fork and quickly enter the LIVING ROOM on the right before the door closes.

 

LIVING ROOM: Pull the left-hand vase towards the sofa once to find someone's DIARY. That mysterious someone speaks about his/her sister who died earlier. They were sitting on this sofa together and watched the fire in the fireplace... So, it's a hint. Hopefully you have filled your waterskin with water earlier. Use it to extinguish the fire in the fireplace. Enter, go around the ash tray and turn to face the room. Press Action and Lara will find another WOODEN KEY. Then press the button on the wall near the harp to make the door leading back to the corridor open when Lara approaches. NOTE: If you haven't filled the waterskin with water, here is the solution: use this button to open the door and return to the corridor. Go left, to the fork. Jump over the concealed hole in the floor to the right and press the button to open the door at the end of the corridor. You will be back at the main gallery (first area). You can then fill the waterskin with water in the bathroom where you did it for the first time. Return the same way to the third-area corridor and do the timed run again to return to the Living room.

 

UNUSED WARDROBE: Once you have the wooden key from the living room, leave the room, go left and turn right at the fork. Go through the open door at the end of the hallway, then up the stairs and left through the open door. Use the key in the first keyhole to the right. Save your game before you enter, because this wardrobe is haunted and the ghosts here are particularly nasty. As you enter, go to the left between the cabinets and enter the alcove in the near left corner. Use the JS there to turn on the lights (to kill the ghosts). Lara can now see and find the SILVER KEY in the SW corner (behind the cabinet) of the room. Leave the room, go right, jump over the concealed gap and turn right at the fork. Unlock the door at the end of the corridor.

 

BALCONY AND STORAGE: At the balcony, go left and open the wooden door with your crowbar. Enter the storage. Pick up flares on the left-hand shelves and AREA KEY on the right-hand shelves. Return to the balcony and unlock the door to the right. Enter the second part of the third area. Don't turn right at the fork as you don't have the necessary keys as yet. Go forward, jump over the concealed hole in the floor, watch a short flyby, proceed and enter the astral room through the opening on the right (looks like a window).

 

ASTRAL ROOM: The trick of this strange room is to use the thin white ledges, to reach the goal, but if you miss any jump, you will be sent back to the entrance and you'll have to try all over again. So, go to the first ledge and run jump onto the nearest ledge (a bit diagonally to the right). Run jump into the same direction onto a bit higher ledge, then stand jump onto the next one. Stand jump onto a higher ledge in the same direction, turn right and run jump onto the nearest ledge. Now, don't jump onto the ledge just a bit to the left, as it is too steep, but instead, turn to face the entrance and run jump onto the second ledge from there. Walk to the highest edge of this ledge, take one step back, stand so the entrance is on Lara's left and stand jump onto the ledge there. Now, turn to face away from the entrance and a bit diagonal to the left. Run jump with a left curve and Action to grab the edge of the next ledge. Pull up, face away from the entrance and stand jump onto a bit lower ledge. Run jump to land on the ledge to the left (or ahead if the entrance is on Lara's left). Run jump on another ledge in the same direction, turn right (face away from the entrance) and run jump to grab the last ledge (hardly visible, as it is completely even). On this ledge you'll (finally) find the SILVER KEY. The room geometry will change and you'll slide down to the floor. Go to the entrance and through the passage leading back to the last corridor.

 

ARMORY AND MEETING ROOM: Go left, jump over the concealed hole and turn left at the fork. Unlock the first door on the left. Open the door inside the armory and enter the next room. In the last alcove to the left you'll find Melody's DIARY where she says that her father never got home from work yesterday. She's scared and hungry, and decided to go to the basement. Lit a flare and find another SILVER KEY on the floor between this alcove and the window. Picking it up will close the entrance and one knight will start chasing Lara. As you don't have any weapons, you have to evade it. Run around the room until the knight stops chasing you and dies. See that block blocking the entrance has lowered. Return to the armory, go left and back to the corridor, there turn left and unlock the last room to the right.

 

BREAKER ROOM: Go up the stairs, to see that cables fall into the pool, making this pool deadly (in the most convenient time, I must admit). You need to jump across the pool using the block in the corner near the right-hand wall. There are two ways to do it: HARDER WAY: Run jump to land on that block and immediately press Action to climb out of the water. This will probably kill Lara several times until you finally make it. EASIER WAY: Take one step back from the edge of the pool and hop backwards. From there, go into a run jump to land on the block. Immediately stand jump onto the ledge on the other side of the pool, losing a bit of energy in the process. Use the switch on the wall to turn the electricity off. Now you can jump into water and claim yet another AREA KEY. Return to the corridor, go right at the fork and let Lara drop through the concealed hole all the way down to the Foyer. Straight ahead is the door leading to Area Two. Enter, go right and follow the corridor to the end. Unlock the door here to enter the last area of the game.

 

AREA FOUR: BASEMENT: Go down the stairs and slide down the ramp. Open the door at the bottom of the ramp and enter the basement's corridor. Open the first room to the right. Enter the MAID'S ROOM: This room is haunted, so be as quick as you can. Go to the other end of the room and left at the fork. Open the bathroom door and fill the waterskin in the shallow pool. Return back to the corridor, go right and open the door on the left. Put off the fire in the fireplace in COAL STORAGE ROOM. This will open two doors nearby. From now on, one or two ghosts will chase Lara all the way to the end of the level. Good luck! NOTE: Do not open the second door on the right back in the corridor, as it is fake and lethal. The doors you opened are to the right from the fireplace. The left-hand door leads to SEWERS, and we should go there first.

 

SEWERS: Turn left at the fork, as the door straight ahead is fake. Follow the passage to the small opening with water. As there is an underwater maze down there, better save your game. Swim down to the fork, then to the left, and turn right at the next fork. Follow the passage to the long tunnel with alcoves on both sides. At the end of the tunnel, turn right, and then right around the corner at the end of the tunnel. Follow that passage to the next fork and take the left passage. Follow it through the triangular opening between sand dunes until you reach the next fork. At this fork swim forward and then to the right, where you can surface and climb out of the water.

 

STORAGE ROOM: Push the crate twice into the storage and enter. Go around the wall to the left and find another crate there. Pull it backwards once, return to the first crate and push it into the wall to reveal a button on the wall. Press it to open the door nearby. Open the right-hand door in the far right corner and enter a short corridor. Do not press the button to the left to open the door around the corner, as the ghosts will enter from the Coal Storage into this room and bother you. Instead, enter the MAID'S DINING ROOM to the right. On the wooden crate to the left you'll find yet another DIARY (crouch to read it). Someone speaks about lost coins in the basement's mysterious room and voices coming from below. Pull the barrel on the central table backwards to find the WOODEN KEY hidden beneath it. Return to the corridor, press the button on the opposite wall this time and leave through the door to the right.

 

??? AREA: Go left. Do not open two doors on the right-hand wall as they are fake. Unlock the door at the end of the corridor and go down the stairs into the area named "???". Open the door at the bottom of the staircase. Find the first part of Dominique's DIARY on the floor and read about strange green light and evil energy emanating from a crystal in the basement. Dominique says that the crystal should be destroyed. The door ahead will open automatically. Inside a green poisonous room you'll find the second part of the DIARY saying that Dominique could not find a weapon that could destroy that evil energy. Approach the green crystal and press Action. Lara will destroy the crystal with her faithful crowbar. The level will end here.