ARMAGEDDON'S TEMPLE
By Elvis Tupčijenko (eTux)

This walkthrough was written by the author himself, by special request. His contribution to our collection is greatly appreciated.

Designations: Specific area, level; Enemy; Pickup; Secrets; Cardinal points.

The Caves.

Lara starts in a very dark cave. Press the look key to break through the camera, draw a flare and look in the corner for some revolver ammo (1). Slide down in the big cave and go the way with the more yellow lighting. Near a slope you might spot a small medipack (2); jump on top of the rock and get it. Go behind the waterfall; the double door opens when you approach it. Drop in the hole and slide down (preferably with Lara's back facing the way Lara slides in). Grab the edge at the end of the slope and with a safety drop, drop down in the temple; you'll lose a bit of your health, but it's not that bad.

There are 4 tables in the corners of this room; shoot them to reveal some pickups. Pick up the shotgun normal ammo (3) and theShotgun (4) in the SE corner of the room. The opposite corner holds the shotgun normal ammo (5) and the crowbar (6). Once you've picked it up, one of the 2 double doors opens.

The Throne room.

You enter now a room with a dome, and a throne at the other side of the walkway. 4 pools of boiling water surround you; so don't go for a swim there! There are 3 platforms in the pools; the one in the corner has a pickup and one of the 2 triggers a trap. Avoid the squares with the fire symbol, 2 will kill you instantly and the other 2 will trigger a banshee (1) and darts that will make your progression through this room harder. Once you've collected all the pickups – shotgun normal ammo (7,8), shotgun wideshot ammo (9), a large and a small medipack (10,11)) - choose the next adventure to experience now.

If you went to the east, follow the walkthrough the usual way, but if you went to the west, ignore the next paragraph for now.

Level 2:

Jump in the water and swim through the caves to another part of the temple. Climb out of the water at the end and enter the room with the fountain. You will see 2 ways to go further in the level, 2 receptacles for gems and 2 doors in the pool. To the south is the water quest, and to the north is the earth quest.
If you chose the earth quest as first, ignore the next paragraph for now, but if you chose the water quest, follow this walkthrough as it goes.

The Water Section.

The door in the stone room with the 2 pools of the corresponding element opens as you approach it, and it closes once it's behind you. Get in the water and swim to get the flares (12) at the bottom of this cave. Swim back to grab for air; you might need it. Now just swim through the underwater caves until you enter another section of the temple again. You'll eventually get to the infamous room with many underwater doors, where only a few hold things you need. Swim in the middle of the circle below, and look up on the pattern above each door. The ones with the water pattern hold pickups (shotgun ammo (13), large medipack (14)), Secret #1 - a grenade launcher (15) - and the way out of this room.

But first look for the air pattern and open that door to find a small room with air. You can swim here every time you need air. Once done with this room, exit to the mini-maze; a current prevents you from getting back, so be sure you have enough air. Now you have to do something to get secret #2 - As you enter the maze, turn right and swim until you have more ways to go. Swim forward and then turn left (west). Now in this tunnel swim only at the top of the room, like you wanted to grab for air, and Lara will find a hidden water surface and a hidden room. Climb out here, and pull the cord at the end of this room. A camera shows how the door near the start of this level opens; that's where you'll find the next secret.

When done with the water section return there, avoid a scissor-blade and search the sarcophagus to find the grenade gun normal ammo (23) and crossbow explosive ammo (24), and there's a shotgun wideshot ammo (25) in the corner too. Two skeletons (3,4) will come to life, so equip your Grenade Gun and blow them up, or equip your Shotgun, lead them to the nearest pool and blast them in there. You can also ignore them if you want to, or if you're already done with both sections just escape through the door opened by the 2 hearts.

Now back to where you are, swim to the end of the tunnel you came after the secret, and pick up a small medipack (16) and crossbow poison ammo (17). Now swiftly swim back to where you came from and swim in the east tunnel of the maze. There will be a few more choices to go, but always swim to the east. After swimming for a while a current will take you to a waterfall and you'll drop in the final part of the water section. Pick up a large medipack (18) in the water and climb out.

Climb up the ladder to a small room. You will see 2 black beetles (19, 20) on the wall; pry them loose with the crowbar. You'll find out that one of them is broken, but that doesn't matter. Pick up the Destruction’s effigy (21) from the pedestal and equip a weapon of your choice to battle the guardian (2) that was summoned. When he dies, he'll leave his heart(22). Pick it up and the bluish door in the previous room will open. Swim in the tunnels and then at the end swim HIGH up and end up back in the fountain. The door closes behind you; the water section is now completed.

Earth Section

As always, the door opens as you approach it in the room with the many plants, and closes once it’s behind you. This room is quite dark, so you might want to light a flare. You will see a small rock pillar in this room. If you're a completist you'll find some Uzi ammo (26) behind it. When you enter the next room, 2 skeletons (5,6) come to life. You can dispose of them, if they're really bothering you, or just ignore them, cause at some point they lose interest in hunting you. Next you'll come to a colourful pad area. Just look at the symbols on them if you want to stay alive. The fire symbol obviously burns Lara to a crisp, and the earth symbol allows you to progress. You only have to use simple standing or running jumps to get from one safe spot to the other.

Once you've reached the top safely you have to go down once again. With safety drops get yourself to the bottom of in the room with the 2 dead skeleton warriors and a golden beetle. Might seem pretty obvious what will happen now, but don't be so sure about it. Pick up the Golden Beetle (27) and watch as the 4 blocks in the corner of this room lower, and 40 deadly scarabs are released. The door in front of you also opens now, so you're not trapped with them here. What you have to do now is to jump and grab the ceiling and monkey swing away from the danger. It's recommended to save once you've done this, since another unpleasant sequence is coming up.

Monkey swing closer and closer to the high bridge until 2 scissor blades pop out in front of you. The original way I (the author) planned the player to get through this was to swing in between the blades while immediately hitting a hotkey for one of your medipacks (on a PC hit 9 for a large medipack, 0 for a small medipack) BUG ALERT! - if you have only 1 large medipack and hit the hotkey for it, Lara won't be healed, but the medipack will disappear. (This happens in all custom levels; must be a glitch with the editor itself.) If you can't get through this the intended way, you have an alternative. Drop down, and the 2 doors, you’ve probably seen before now will be open.

Go in the one, where you don't see a sarcophagus. There will be a jump-switch in this room. When activating it, the scarabs disappear, and a bit later the blades are also deactivated. There are also some goodies to get if you went this way. In the room with the jump-switch – grenade gun normal ammo (28) and shotgun normal ammo (29). In the opposite room, the sarcophagus holds some shotgun normal ammo (30), flares (31) and a small medipack (32). Now you can safely monkey swing past the blades to the bridge. At the end of the leaves, let them go and press the action button again to grab the bridge.

Climb up, but don't pick up the large medipack yet; it'll trigger darts that'll make your adventure in this section a bit harder for now. Go to the smaller door, and open it with the crowbar. Pull the cord in this room to open the door on the other side of the bridge. Enter it and pry the Holy Beetle (33) from the wall. Pick up the Guardian’s Staff(34), and another guardian(7) will be summoned. Kill it and get its heart (35).

Now go back to the bridge and pick up the large medipack (36)(it's safe to do so now). Go to the door, that opened when picking up the heart, and use your golden beetle to deactivate the spikes. Go to the end of the tunnel and reach a high library with 2 rugs in the middle of it. You can now get a secret. Go to the left corner and climb up; at one point jump backwards and hold the jump button, so Lara will bounce from the slope and grab the rug. Now climb up to the top of this room and backflip to a ledge. Use the beetle to reveal the way to Secret #3revolver ammo (37), a lasersight (38), and a revolver (39). Get back down and climb the middle ladder in the room. Jump in the water and swim until you find some revolver ammo (40); pick it up and continue swimming until you get out, back in the fountain room.

Now place the 2 hearts, and go up the stairs, back to level 1.

Level 1

The Throne Room

At the start of this level light a flare and jump over the hole to pick up shotgun normal ammo (41). Climb down and drop on the platform. Combine the Destructions Effigy and Guardian's Staff in your inventory to get the Temple Guardian. Approach the throne, and an earthquake will warn you of something... Place the temple guardian and it'll open the 2 doors on the side of the wall (BUG ALERT! you have to place the temple guardian now, because if you'll find the other 2 parts before placing this one, you'll only have 1 exemplar of each in your inventory!). There's no need to go there yet, so ignore it for now. Go down the other hallway; the door opens as you approach it
and closes once it's behind you. Jump in the hole and slide in to the next level...

Level 3

Slide down the cave into the next part of the temple, enter another fountain area, and pick up the small medipack (42) in the pool. Again there are 2 sections to complete - the FIRE and AIR part. We'll start with the fire part (west) now.

The Fire Section

When you enter this area you see the lava river; before going on the quest you might want to get secret #4. Go along the river's bank you came in; you'll eventually come to the first 2 lavafalls. You have to do a few simple jumps to clear the corner. Jump up the first steep slope, the 2nd one won't be so steep anymore, but it is important for finding this secret. You might want to use the binoculars with night vision to find the opening you have to climb in (it's important that you do it now, because once you've done something else in this area the secret won't be accessible any more.)

Climb up 2 ladders and then one extremely long one down. Enter the big area and look for 3 pickups here - some revolver ammo (43) on the ice mound, grenade gun super ammo (44) and crossbow explosive ammo (45) in the corners of the room. Then enter the room in the middle of the wall. When you jump on the red platform you are transported to a black block house which you'll later see at the start of the lava river. Once teleported there, you'll see a mirror room; it doesn't reveal any hidden pickups, so go further. In the corners of the room you'll find crossbow poison ammo and crossbow explosive ammo (46, 47), and on the pedestal is the Crossbow (48) – after picking it up a bronze clone of Lara’s appears on the other pedestal. I don’t advice shooting it as it takes your health away instead of the clones.

Once you've picked the crossbow up, you've got everything in Secret #4, so go in one of the openings in the room and use the teleporter to get back to the room from which you were transported to here. Return the way you came to the very start of the room. Use the monkey bars and swing across to the other bank of the river. Go along the bank, and at one point 3 banshees (8,9,10) will attack Lara, 2 from the front and 1 from the back. Dispose of them and continue your quest. At the starting point of the river you'll see the black blockhouse, where 2 fire steams guard its entrances. Before entering the house, look on the river's banks for some Uzi ammo (49) and a revolver(50), because you can't get them afterwards! Now go in the house and pull the cord. This triggers a vertical steam of fire and drops the teal stone blocks to block the lava river.

Go along the now dry river, pick up some ]color=blue[revolver ammo[/color] (51) and continue your quest. At the end of the river 2 skeletons (11,12) will rise; just ignore them and slide down. Now you can safely enter the room that was guarded by the river. Pry the Holy beetle (52) from the wall, and pick up the Guardian's Staff (53), and another guardian (13) will appear. Kill it and it'll leave a Tibetan Idol (54); when you pick it up a door will open, when you enter the next room, shoot the 2 tables and pick up the uzi ammo (55) one of them leaves.

Now comes a ladder guarded by 3 steaming fires. There is no real trick to pass the steams; it's just a matter of timing. Once atop there are 3 more steaming fire sequences to avoid. After that find a jump-switch near the escape door and enter the room above the fountain. Jump in the pool, climb out and go on the last elemental quest.

The Air Section.

Again, as you approach the door it opens and you'll see one of the few teal transporters that will move you to different sections of this adventure. Enter the transporter and let it move you to the first one. It's a huge cavern with floating platforms and flying rugs. As you make your first steps a skeleton (14) rises on the stone bridge; dispose of it with a weapon of your choice. You might want to get the last (fifth) secretfirst. Pass the first steams and face the first flying rug on your left you see. With a running jump land on an invisible platform and then grab the rug, as it is climbable.

First climb up to pick up a small medipack (56) and then carefully climb down as low as you can. Let the ladder go and hold the jump key to jump from the slope on the other side of the river's bank. Jump on the other bank of the river and light a flare to find a slope you can jump to in the dark. Pick up 3 sets of Uzi ammo (57,58,59) and return to the other bank of the river again. Find the entrance to a cave and light another flare. Pick up some flares (60) along the way, and go to the end of the cave. Pick up some uzi ammo (61) and an Uzi (62) and trigger secret # 5.

Enter the teleporter so it moves you back to the start of this room. Cross the bridge and climb up the ladder. Move along the tunnels and pick up the revolver ammo (63) and uzi ammo (64) in a dark corner. Jump on the first floating rock, and with a running jump and grab get on top of one of the floating rugs. From here do a running jump and grab to get on a stone ledge at the side of the room. Pick up a flash grenade ammo set (65) and uzi ammo (66), and return back to the rock platform. With a few jumps get from one block to the other until you get to the ledge that leads into the small cave with the ladder.

Ignore the ledge with the large medipack and the door for now; you'll return there later. Climb up the ladder and go whichever way you want to (there are 4 openings leading out to platforms). From whichever ledge you are on, perform jumps to the 2 floating platforms until you get to the middle platform in the middle (BUG ALERT - if you enabled Volumetric FX in the start-up menu, the top area of this cavern will be pitch black, and neither flares or binoculars will help you to see a thing.). Before pulling the cord, do a running jump to a West platform and pick up a grenade gun super ammo (67) and return to the central platform.

Pull the cord and 2 banshees (15,16) will appear. Either ignore them or get rid of them, but go to the room where the door opened in the north wall.

Pull the jump-switch at the end of this room and another banshee (17) will be triggered. Return to the rocky platform and swing either the platform on your left or right. Get to the ladder, climb down and go where the large medipack (68) was and pick it up. Go up the stairs and enter the transporter. It'll move you to the next area in the air section. Go and pry the last Holy beetle (69) from the wall and pick up the Destruction's Effigy (70) to trigger yet another guardian (18). Kill it and pick up its Tibetan Idol (71). It will raise a block nearby; climb on it and climb in the cave section.

There'll be a ladder that is guarded by steam; you'll meet a lot of those until you escape from the air section now. Time your climbing up and escape through the tunnels. Once out of the caves drop again into the pool and climb out. Use the 2 idols to open the portal. Pick up the Revolver ammo(72) in the corner and escape through the portal.

Level 1

The Throne Room

Go forward and grab the ladder, climb down and drop onto the platform. Jump in the room you opened previously and go to the small orange room first to get the revolver ammo (73). Combine the Destructions Effigy and the Guardian's Staff into a Temple Guardian and place it in the bluish room. Watch the flyby, and go to the double door it showed opening. Kill the guardian (18) on the way and another one (19) when you enter the area the Temple Guardian unlocked. Use the golden beetle to deactivate the spikes.

You don't have to pick it up any more, but be prepared for a battle with 2 guardians (20,21); once they're down use the 4 holy beetles to open the black pyramid. Once it's open pick up the Armageddon's Scroll (74) and return to the throne room. The floor in the middle of the room will be lowered and 4 banshees (22,23,24,25) will attack you. It actually doesn't matter now if they are killed or not. Drop into the newly opened room and go and place the Armageddon's Scroll. Watch the flyby and the level ends...

Summary:

Pickups: 74
Kills: 25
Secrets: 5 of 5