TINNOS CHALLENGE

Levels by Karol

Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth

Note:  Be sure to run setup first, or the game will not start.

TINNOS CHALLENGE: Part 1

Begin in a passage.  Step out into a small room, get up onto the corner block and jump to the higher ledge.  Run forward and press the button to open the door below.  Jump across to the other ledge for a small medipack, drop down to the floor and enter the next room.  The first of the eponymous Tinnos wasps make their appearance, but you're shielded from them for now by a fence.  Note the keyhole and climb the wall ladder into a passage.  The wasps appear to be loose, but they don't come after you.

Don't use the breaktile now, or you won't be able to get back.  The burner tiles below are not yet on, so climb down the ladder on this side, run across and climb the ladder on the other side for the SWARM KEY.  Now stand jump to grab the break tile, pull up and run jump to the other side.  Climb back down the ladder and use the Swarm Key to open the gate and release an angry swarm of Tinnos wasps.  Stay and do battle if you like, or choose the better course of valor and escape through the nearby passage.

Ignore the opening on your right for now and go to the end of the passage and enter a dead-end room where another swarm of Tinnos wasps awaits.  Pick up the UZIS from the raised tile and return to that side passage.  Enter and hop down to the room below (the liquid in the moat is deadly).  Stop there and look up left.  There's a trio of spike barrels poised to sweep you to your doom, so save your game here.   What I did was to turn my back on the barrels and walk away from them.  When they're triggered, the camera view changes, so when they get close simply back flip over them. 

Follow after the spike barrels and walk carefully past the spike clusters.  When you approach the first pair of flaming pots they start swinging, but it's an easy matter to avoid them.  In the process you'll trigger a Tinnos beast, so kill it quickly and get past the remaining fire pots.  Slide down to where the spike barrels came to rest and look up left to see a giant boulder.  The boulder won't be triggered until you're about halfway down the ramp.  If you're up against the wall and simply crouch, the boulder will roll by harmlessly.  Jump into the trench and if necessary, crawl past the boulder into the next room.

Time a run past two sets of rotating blades and come to a huge room with a deep chasm.  You're seemingly stuck here, but look left and see a crack in the wall.  Jump up to grab it, and shimmy right across the chasm.  Drop down and enter the opening.  Beware of dropping debris as you pick up a large medipack.  Climb the ladder to an upper area and follow the ledge to an opening protected  by a pair of rotating blade traps.  Time a jump past them and drop down into the next area. 

Run up the ramp and simply shimmy past the fire pots without triggering any but the first one.  Pull down the wall switch to lower a trap door at the bottom of the deep chasm and get back the same way.  I couldn't find any practical use for the pushblock, so get past the spinning blades and jump back to the high ledge.  Return to the chasm and take a pretty swan dive to the water hole deep below.

Pull out and go through the open gate.  You've stumbled across the nesting area for Tinnos wasps (I didn't count them, but there's a bunch), as well as a couple of Tinnos beasts.  I suggest that before doing anything you dash forward and pick up the ROCKET LAUNCHER in the middle of the floor.  After all enemies have been vanguished, climb the ledge on the opposite side of this room and use the blocks to climb up higher.  Slide down into a barbecue pit and grab the crystal on this side of the flames. There's apparently no way to get across safely, so run through the flames and use the crystals scattered throughout the other side to stay alive while you follow the path to a pool of water where you can douse the flames.

Swim down the hole into an underwater area with clashing currents. The arrows indicate the direction of the flow.  You can try to get across by following the arrows if you wish.  The current is not strong, however, so I found it much easier just to fight the current and swim straight across, avoiding the blades near the end.  Pull up onto the ledge and run forward to end this part of your adventure. 

TINNOS CHALLENGE: Part 2

Pull up into the opening and approach the flaming pool.  Take a running jump into the safe trench in the middle of the pool so the boulder will miss you as it falls.  Turn left at the closed underwater gate and pull out in the corner.  Walk carefully through the spikes and climb up onto the block,  Hop over the lower spikes and walk forward into the corner opening.  You can't go back now, so swim through the passage and up into a room over the flaming pool.  Locate and pull the underwater lever.  Swim around a bit up here until you drop down into the pool where the boulder fell.   That gate is now open, so swim through and surface. 

Pull out into a surreal area with purple psychedelic pillars.  Go past them into a room with more colorful pillars.  Locate a square colorless column and climb up on it.  Use the tiles atop the colorful pillars to make your way to a suspended square colorless column near the middle of the room with a tall colorful pillar astride it.  Although all sides of this second column are climbable, remember that in TR3 you can't shimmy around corners.  Therefore, it's absolutely necessary for you to jump to that side of the column that faces the opening that you entered this room from.  (You'll take a running jump from the top of a cyan pillar through a tall yellow pillar and grab the very bottom of the suspended column.) That way you'll have a clear path to climb all the way up.

When you pull up you're blinded by the glare.  Run forward to end the level.