ESCAPE FROM THE BASE

Level by Levyhgb

Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth, with thanks to Marksdad for pointing out the way to the third secret and for otherwise helping me to see the obvious.

Followed further down by an adjusted/updated walkthrough by Jim Newell

Begin underwater.  The current draws you forward, and the door ahead opens to a large water-filled pit, then closes behind you.  Pull out and shoot two thugs (who leave nothing behind).  Avoid the swinging contraptions, note the closed door with a receptacle on either side of it and go to the end of the room where you'll find a wheel.  Turn it to open the door.  Enter the next room and go to the wall to your left.  Do not jump into the water.  Stand on a closed trap door that you'll open soon and jump up to grab the sloped gray platform.  Pull up, turn around and take a running jump to a crack in the wall.  Grab it and shimmy left until you can pull up.  Push the wall button to turn off the flames in another area.  Get down, exit this room (you'll return later), run past the swinging contraptions and go down the ramp to your left.  At the bottom walk over the now dormant flames tiles and note the stacked crates on either side of the pool.  In the near left corner is a switch that opens a door elsewhere.  One of the crates on this side (the faded one) can be pushed, but you need to find a way behind it so you can push it out and around to reach the higher switch in the other corner. 

Go across to the other side of the room and climb the ladder (with your back to the pool).  One block from the top, take a back flip and jump off the slope to grab the edge of an alcove.  Pull up and activate the wall switch to open a trap door referred to earlier. Turn around and take a running jump to the top of the stacked crates to your right.  Pause for the small medipack and uzi ammo, then take a running jump and grab the central bridge.  Pull down the wall switch to open a door down in the pool below.  You have something that needs to be done before you go there, however (at least, that's what I thought at the time I wrote these words, but doing it this way won't cost you much lost time).

Drop down into the water, pull out and return to the entry ramp.  Go up the ramp to the beginning area.  Cross to the room you visited earlier and find the opened trap door near the left wall.  Jump in here (if you jump in anywhere else you'll be sucked in by the fan) and draw out a frogman.  Pull back out and kill him, then jump back in and follow the wall to the nearby underwater lever.  Pulling it shuts down the fan, so swim underneath it for the SILVER DRAGON and SECRET #1. 

Locate the opening in the wall at floor level and find another underwater lever at the far end.  Pull it to open a door above you in this room.  Swim back to encounter another frogman.  Pull out, take the time to kill him if you wish and return to the room with the stacked crates.  Jump into the pool, swim down and through the opened doorway. 

Follow to the shaft and swim up, but not all the way to the top.  Take the side passage, swim up, turn around and pull up into a dark room.  Get onto a higher ledge and take a standing jump to grab the top of a brown striped pillar.  Pull up and kill a thug.  Find a nearby hole and climb down for shotgun ammo.  Climb back out and trigger the barrel trap that would have killed you had you not used the side passage.  Do so by running across the flat surface next to the water hole.  Get up onto the platform where the barrels rested.  There's a grate above you, but it's a phantom.  Jump up, grab the edge and pull up into a cramped area where you'll find the GOLD DRAGON and SECRET #2.  Hop down through the phantom grate and go to the side of the room opposite from where you pulled out of the water.  Hop down further into a shallow hole.  Push the crate forward, then go back up, jump into either water hole and return to the pool in the room with the stacked crates.  Pull out and move the crate you pushed out to the corner underneath the higher wall switch.  Get up and pull it down to open a door near one that you opened earlier.

Drop down from the crate, enter the passage created when you moved the crate away, and pull up to the area with the barrel trap.  Jump back to the brown striped pillar and pull up to find the two opened doors to your right.  Step inside and pick up the red KEY TO GUARDHOUSE.  Return to the room with the crates and use the ladder to access the alcove with the wall switch.  Push it back up to close the trap door and return to the frogman-infested room.  Use the closed trapdoor to reach the sloped gray pillar once more.  This time, however, jump forward to the walkway and make your way across the room to the opened doorway.

Locate the long ladder ahead as the camera angle changes.  Climb up and back flip to the ledge near the top.  Go up the steps and push the button to open the door.  This would be a good place to save your game.  Draw your shotgun and step inside the room.  Quickly kill two thugs (small medipack and large medipack) and a flamethrower guy (uzi ammo) before they know what hit them.  From the entrance, go to the far slope surrounding the central grated structure.  Climb up onto it, turn around and jump to the brown striped alcove.  Turn around and take a running jump to the dark gray ledge.  Grab and pull up.  Locate uzi ammo and shotgun ammo near the wall, and step up onto one of the nearby higher slabs.  Jump up and grab the higher ledge.  Pull up and note the button in the wall.  Don't push it yet, however, because it's timed.

Instead, face the dark corner of this room (the corner opposite from the side you jumped over from) and take a running jump with a slight midair curve to the right to land inside a hard-to-see alcove.  Pull down the wall switch inside and turn to shoot the thug firing at you from down below.  Go down and retrieve the shotgun ammo he dropped, and note that the trap door in the floor of the central structure has dropped down.  Climb back up to the highest ledge and save your game before pushing that wall button.   Push it and roll, run forward a couple of steps and take a running jump into the central structure.  You'll fall down into some water.  Immediately swim down and left to make it past the timed door.  Continue forward and pick up 3 x harpoons, then pull down the underwater lever.  Turn right to pick up the JADE DRAGON for SECRET #3.  Along with it come 2 x grenades and a small medipack.  Pull the underwater lever a second time to re-open the timed door and exit.

Turn left at the intersection and loop around until you reach uzi ammo and an underwater lever.  Pull it and return to the intersection.  Go straight across, swim up for air at the end and come back down for the large medipack.  Go back the other way, turn left and then right.  As you swim along this passage you'll meet up with a frogman, so get past him and rush to the far end.  Pull out right, and save your game as you're doing so.  If you pull out straight ahead you'll run into a buzz saw of the literal kind.  Awaiting you in this relatively small room are a thug and a flamethrowing guy, so take them out before returning your attention to the frogman.  When all is quiet, pick up the small medipack and climb the crate behind the buzz saw to find a wall switch.  Pull it down to lower a trap door in the ceiling of this room.

Pull out the faded crate from the opposite wall (noting the revealed receptacle in the wall behind it), get up on it and jump to grab the ceiling at the opened trap door.  Pull up and greet a thug.  He drops a circuit board that shows up in your inventory as P1.  You know where it goes, but unfortunately the ceiling trap door closed behind you when you pulled up.  Push the wall button in the corner and get a screen of a nervous thug.  Hop over the hole and pick up uzi ammo.  Jump to the ladder and climb up to the top.  You can back flip here into an alcove behind you, but there's nothing there.  Pull up, slide down into a familiar room and kill that nervous thug.  Pick up the shotgun ammo he dropped and locate the opened trap door in the far corner of this room.  Jump into the water and swim all the way back to the buzz saw room.  Another thug awaits you there, and he leaves behind some flares.  Insert the P1 in the wall receptacle to turn off that buzz saw.  Go there and pick up the K4, otherwise known as the blue KEY TO GUARDHOUSE.

Get back up through the hole in the ceiling (you'll have to push the wall switch back up first), and this time climb down the ladder.  Release at the bottom and you'll drop onto a slope that brings you down to the frogman room.  Go out to the beginning area and use your red and blue artifacts to open the door near the swinging contraptions.  Enter a trough-shaped room with central pillars.  A couple of thugs are hiding behind the pillars.  Dispatch them and pull the crate from the far wall.  Get up onto it and jump to the nearby pillar.  Pull up in a corner, where you'll be safe from the flame, and turn around to jump to the ladder.  Climb to the top and pull up.  Turn around and jump to a higher pillar.  Pull up and climb another ladder.  If you so wished, you could climb right through the grate as if it weren't there and finish the level in a matter of seconds, but according to Marksdad that's not the builder's intended way.  Makes me wonder about that second secret, come to think of it.

So, if you're looking for some additional gameplay, climb all the way back down and get onto the crate again.  Look for an opening ahead and to your left, and jump to it.  Make your way down to the back side of the crate and note the wall switch.  Before you pull it, push the crate to give you a short cut back to the previous room.  Pulling down the wall switch turns off the flames atop the pillars for a brief period of time.  You need to get onto the far pillar and access the ladder there.  The quickest way for me was to run to the second pillar, turn to either side and back flip off the slope to grab the pillar, and then the ladder.  Climb about halfway up and back flip into a passage.  Push the wall button to lower that phantom grate.  The flames will have returned by now, so carefully drop from the ladder onto a corner of the pillar.  Return to the crate and use the switch again if you wish to make things a bit easier. 

Repeat the ladder climbs described two paragraphs back.  Back flip near the top into a passage.  Turn around and head toward the sunset.  You'll drop down onto a large blue sloped surface and slide down to end the level.

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ESCAPE FROM THE BASE

Walkthrough by Jim Newell

Begin underwater.  The current draws you forward, and the door ahead opens to a large water-filled pit, then closes behind you.  Pull out and shoot two thugs (who leave nothing behind). Go to the end of the room where you'll find a wheel.  Open the door.  Enter the next room and go to the wall to your left. 

Do not jump into the water.  Stand on a closed trap door and jump up to grab the sloped gray platform. 

Pull up, turn around and take a running jump to a crack in the wall.  Grab it and shimmy left until you can pull up.  Push the wall button to turn off the flames in another area.  Get down, exit this room, run past the hoists and go down the ramp.

At the bottom, walk over the now dormant flames tiles; note the stacked crates on either side of the pool.  For this visit, do not use or activate any switches, except the one atop the duct!

Which opens a door in the pool. One of the crates on this side can be pushed, but leave it for now.

Go across to the other side of the room and climb the ladder (with your back to the pool).  One block from the top, take a back flip and jump off the slope to grab the edge of (or stand on) an alcove.

Turn around and take a running jump to the top of the stacked crates to your right.

Pick up the small medipack and uzi ammo; take a run/jump/grab the air duct.

Use the wall switch to open a door down in the pool. Drop into the water and enter the new opening.

Follow the shaft and swim up, but not to the top.  Take the side passage, swim up, turn around and pull up into a dark room.  Run under the barrels; and through the barrel trap that would have, otherwise, killed Lara.  Do so by running across the flat surface next to the water hole.  Get up onto the platform where the barrels rested.  There's an open grate above you.  Jump up, grab the edge and pull up into a cramped area where you'll find the GOLD DRAGON, SECRET #1. Climb back out go to the side of the room opposite from where you pulled out of the water. Hop down further into a shallow hole.  Push the crate one tile, then climb out and swim back to the room with the stacked crates.  Move the crate you pushed out to the corner underneath the wall switch 2; use the switch to open a door. Use switch 1, same wall other corner, to open the other door.

Use the newly opened doorway to enter the barrel-trap room, climb upon the textured floor and jump/grab the brown striped wall. Pull up and kill a shooter.  Find a nearby hole and climb down for shotgun ammo.

Pull up to find the two newly opened doors to your right. 

Step past the opened doors and pick up the red KEY TO GUARDHOUSE.

Return to the room with crates and use the ladder to access the alcove with the wall switch.  Use the switch to drop the trap door; move to the trap-door room. Kill the frogman from the deck.

Jump in the trap-door opening and follow the wall to the nearby underwater lever.

Pulling it shuts down the fan; swim underneath the still fan for the SILVER DRAGON, SECRET #2.

Locate the opening in the wall at the bottom; find another underwater lever at the far end.  Pull it to open a door above you in this room.  Swim out and encounter another frogman.  Pull out and shoot him.

Return to the room with crates and within the same alcove, close the trap door; return to the trap-door room. Above the trap door is a ledge which Lara can jump/grab and pull up. She takes a standing jump to the catwalk and moves through the newly opened doorway. Locate a tall ladder.

Climb up and back flip to the ledge near the top.  Go up the steps and push the button to open the door. Good place to save your game.  Draw your shotgun and step inside the room. Kill two thugs

(small medipack and large medipack) and a flamethrower guy (uzi ammo).

From the entrance, go to the far slope surrounding the central grated structure.  Climb up onto it, turn around and jump to the brown striped alcove.  Turn around and take a running jump to the dark gray ledge.  Grab and pull up.  Locate uzi ammo and shotgun ammo near the wall, and step up onto one of the nearby higher slabs.  Jump up and grab the higher ledge.

Pull up and note the button in the wall.  Don't push it yet, because it's timed.

Instead, face the dark corner of this room (the corner opposite from the side you jumped over from) and take a running jump with a slight midair curve to the right to land inside a hard-to-see alcove.  Pull down the wall switch inside and turn to shoot the shooter firing at you from down below.

Go down and retrieve the shotgun ammo he dropped.

Note that the trap door in the floor of the central structure has dropped down - revealing water!

Climb back up to the highest ledge and save your game before pushing that wall button.

Activate/roll/run/jump to the central structure.  You'll fall down into some water.  Immediately swim down and left to make it past the timed door.  Continue forward and pick up 3X harpoons, then pull down the underwater lever.  Turn right to pick up the JADE DRAGON, SECRET #3.  Along with it some grenades and a small medipack.  Pull the underwater lever a second time to re-open the timed door and surface.

Turn left at the intersection and loop around until you reach uzi ammo and an underwater lever.

Pull it and return to the intersection; go straight across, turn right for a large medipack; return for air, pre-select grenade launcher, and save.  Go down, across, left turn and you'll meet up with a frogman, swim past him and rush to the far end.  Pull out right, and save your game as you're doing so.  If you pull out straight ahead you'll run into a buzz saw of the literal kind.  Awaiting you are a thug and a flamethrowing guy, so take them out before returning your attention to the frogman.  When all is quiet, pick up the small medipack and climb the crate behind the buzz saw to find a wall switch.  Activate it to lower a trap door in the ceiling of this room.

Pull out the faded crate from the opposite wall (noting the revealed receptacle in the wall behind it), get up on it and jump to grab the ceiling at the opened trap door.  Pull up and greet a thug.  He drops a circuit board that shows up in your inventory as P1.  You know where it goes, but unfortunately the ceiling trap door closed behind you when you pulled up.  Push the wall button in the corner and get a screen of a nervous thug.  Hop over the hole and pick up uzi ammo.  Jump to the ladder and climb up to the top.  You can back flip here into an alcove behind you, but there's nothing there.  Pull up, slide down into a familiar room and kill that nervous thug.  Pick up the shotgun ammo he dropped and climb up the far corner of this room.  Jump into the water and swim all the way back to the buzz saw room. Another thug awaits you there, and he leaves behind some flares.  Insert the P1 in the wall receptacle to turn off that buzz saw.  Go there and pick up the blue KEY TO GUARDHOUSE.

Get back up through the hole in the ceiling (you'll have to open the grill, again), and this time climb down the ladder.  Release at the bottom and you'll drop onto a slope that brings you down to the fan room.

Go out to the beginning area and use your red and blue pass cards to open the door near the hoists.

Enter a trough-shaped room with central pillars.  A couple of shooters are hiding behind the pillars.

Dispatch them and pull the crate from the far wall.

An opening is ahead and to your left; jump to it.  Make your way down to the back side of the crate and note the wall switch.  Before you activate it, push the crate to give you an entrance to the previous room. Pulling down the wall switch turns off the flames atop the pillars for but a moment. Lara needs to get onto the far pillar and access the ladder there.  (The quickest way for me was to run to the second pillar, turn to either side and back flip off the slope to grab the pillar, and then the ladder).  Climb about halfway up and back flip into a passage.  Push the wall button to lower the grate.  The flames will have returned. carefully drop from the ladder onto a corner of the pillar.  Return to the crate and use the switch again.

Repeat the ladder climbs described above.  Back flip near the top into a passage.  Turn around and head toward the sunset.  You'll drop down onto a large blue sloped surface and slide down to end the level.