TOMB RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

LEVELS BY Yonatan Wilkof

WALKTHROUGH BY Anya Marie McDonald

NOTE: I have listed no secrets or pickups unless the pickup is in a secret or is something that the player needs to perform a task. Sorry, but I feel that players should not be given everything in a walkthrough and that they should just use a walkthrough as a guide to get from the beginning to the end of a level. Everything else in the level should be done by the individual players.

You start off in a room with a fallen column, there is an opening just beyond the column. Head through the opening and slide down to the next room. As you enter this room, watch a flyby, then head to your left. Go around the ledge to the left til you come to a couple of tileswitches next to a face spouting water. Press the tile closest to the face, then head through the open door to your left. Go past a closed door to the waterhole at the back of the room. Drop into the water hole, take the first right, then the second right and follow the underwater passage til you can surface. Exit the water and use the floor lever. After a cut scene jump back into the water then follow the underwater passage and take the second left, then the next left. Surface, exit the water and head through the opening. As soon as you get near the bones on the floor you are besiged by a horde of beetles; they will follow you through the passage to the ledge in the next room.

In this room there are several ropes you need to utilize, but with beetles nipping at your feet it is hard; so deal with them first by hanging from the ledge til they all fall in to the abyss below. Once the beetles are all gone pull up, turn around and align Lara with the first rope and swing to it. Next align Lara with the next rope and swing to it. From the next rope swing over to the ledge and blast the brown pot and pick up the gem. Now jump back onto the rope and swing over to the third rope, then onto the next ledge. Once safely on the ledge, head toward and drop down into the water hole. Next, go right around the corner then take the next left, then the next left (taking note of an airhole), then right. Follow this til you pick up the pharao's pillar. Now swim back to the airhole.

After you get some air, head back to where you dropped into the water. Get some air, then go back around the corner to the right, then take the next right, then left. Follow this underwater passage past the next left to its end, surface and exit the water into a passage. You will find that you are back next to the door you opened with the tileswitch. Now head back into the main room, go to the face spewing water from its mouth and use the ladder there to climb down to an opening you have to crawl through to get to the next room. In the next room, use the floor lever there and watch a cut scene, then head back up the ladder.

Once you are back on the ledge, head to your left, deal with a skeleton then head to the next open door on this side of the ledge. Go through the door into the next room, then head up the ramp and quickly duck into the alcove on the right to avoid the spiked ball. After the ball has passed you by continue on up the ramp to the top. At the top press the tileswitch, endure a small earthquake, turn around and see that another spiked ball caused all the shaking. Now head in the direction the last spiked ball went. Jump over the deep pit in front of a door and watch as it opens.

Go through the door into the next room. There are two moveable columns that need to go on patterned floor tiles. After you have done this, there is a ladder near where the column on the left was, so go and climb it to the next room. In the next room is a pharao's knot sitting on a pedestal. Grab the knot and go through the opening on the west wall. You will slide down the ramp and as you near the bottom a door opens bringing you back to the room where you avoided the spiked ball. Now go out the door to your right and go around the ledge til you come to a receptacle for the pharao's knot. Place the knot there, then head through the door when it opens.

Once through the door in the next room watch a flyby. After the flyby, drop down into the water, then surface and exit the water by a tile switch (save your game here beacuse the door you just opened is timed and does not reset). Press the tile switch, then quickly turn around and head up the steps and ledges to the door on the west wall before it closes. Once you have made it through the door, press the tile switch, then quickly turn around and sprint to the door on the east wall before it closes. (NOTE: not sure if this is a bug, but I had do to all of this while being chased by a wraith.) After you have made it through the door head to your right, pull up into the next passage, then head up the steps to a receptacle for the pharao's pillar. Once the pillar is in its place a door opens, giving you access to the four artifacts you saw in the flyby when you entered the area at the start of the level.

Run/jump/grab/pullup onto the platform with the artifacts, then go and get the pharao's pillar off the pedestal; the other artifacts will engulf Lara in flames so do not get those. (Although, if you feel lucky and have enough medi-packs you can grab the other artifacts and drop down into the water after grabbing each of the other artifacts. After all, that's what Lara would do.) Once you pick up the pillar watch a flyby, then drop down into the water below, then surface and exit the water where there's a crawlspace at the bottom of the face spewing water. Climb the ladder to the top and then head to your right and then to the door you just opened.

As soon as you enter the next room and get near the steps with the coffin on top of it, two spiked balls come crashing down on it, triggering an earthquake. A door opens to your right, so run through there being chased by two wraiths, avoiding spikes and spiked balls, to the opening on the far side. Once there, go arond the corner and slide down the ramp while another spiked ball follows you. When you get near the end, jump and grab the rope and let the ball roll down into the abyss. Next, swing to the passage and continue on down it til the level ends.

Respecting the writer's will to not list secrets in the walk, DJF covers them now in a separate addition:
- the Horseman's Gem described in the above walkthrough counts as secret #1
- using Horseman's Gem in the air pocket slot reached from the NE corner of the first wraith pool unlocks a door with a big medikit behind counting as secret #2
- above the same wraith pool, locate a row of 3 identical vases and shoot the middle one for a small medikit which counts as secret #3.