LARA NEVER HAS A REST 1

Level by Emoeke (Garfield)

Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth, with thanks to Val for finding all the secrets for me before I played the level.

As Lara slides down a slope into this level, a flyby takes you through a nearby area. When camera control is restored, draw your pistols and shoot the two scorpions that come forth to greet you, then turn right and go to the end of the north passage. Turn right and pull up onto a flat area for SECRET #1 and pick up the flares. Drop back down and return to the main area. Run all the way across to the west end and shoot the two large vases in the corners. The one on your right contains the CARTOUCHE PIECE 2. If you step onto the vacant vase platform you'll alert a ninja back near the north opening. Kill him and pick up the uzi ammo he drops.

Go to the double doors inside the north opening. On either side is a moveable statute of an Egyptian animal god, and what you need to do is move each one onto the designer tile on the opposite side of the room. When you've done this, the double doors will open. Go inside the next room and run around the periphery to draw out another ninja. Kill him and relieve him of his uzi ammo. Now shoot the four vases on the corner blocks. The SW and NE ones are empty, so they're just for practice. You'll find the UZIS on the SE one and the HAND OF SIRIUS on the NW one. You still need another starfish artifact to open the north doors.

There's a shimmy crack that goes all the way around the central structure. However, in the east face it's wide enough for you to crawl into. Do so and lower Lara down into the central hole. (You'll need to scoot over to a place where you have enough room to enable Lara's animation.) Light a flare, locate and pick up the HAND OF ORION, then crawl back outside. Two ninjas await you, as you halfway expected they would be. Kill them, then place the hands in their receptacles on either side of the north double doors.

The doors open, so enter a high-walled maze. Turn right and work your way forward as far north as you can go, then curl around to your right at the far end and you'll soon come to an alcove with a floor lever. Throw it, then hurry outside and shoot the retreating ninja. Pick up the crossbow arrows he was carrying, then note the flaming trench and the nearby double doors for which you need the other cartouche piece. Work your way around to the SW corner of the maze area and locate the pillar with a ladder on all four sides. Climb the north face and back flip into a torch-lit upper room. The CARTOUCHE PIECE 1 is in the NE corner. When you pick it up a mummy is awakened, but he's easy to avoid as you jump back to the ladder and climb down to the floor below.

Find your way back to the entrance in the south wall and this time turn left. Follow the dark brown strip on the floor to an alcove in the SW corner and throw the floor switch you'll find there. Now it's time to go looking for another secret. Reverse roll out of the alcove and follow the dark brown strip along the long east hall. Continue forward and you'll soon come to a passage where the floor tiles are marked with light green quadrants. Follow into SECRET #2 and pick up the small medi-pack and large medi-pack.

You now have both cartouche pieces, but let's go on another diversionary trip first. Go toward the NW corner and locate the nearby door in the west wall that's now open. Go inside a mini-maze and pick up a large medi-pack in an alcove to your left and the CROSSBOW in an alcove to your right. Picking up the crossbow summonses a ninja, so reverse roll while drawing your weapons and kill him. Pick up his uzi ammo and go outside to the closed double doors to the north. Combine the two cartouche pieces to form the BA CARTOUCHE and insert it in the receptacle to open the doors.

Run up the ramp as action music plays. It's a perfect spot for a boulder trap, but looks like a false alarm. Jump over the flaming gap and arrive at a ledge overlooking a large room with a pool far below. Looks like there's nothing to do but dive into the water, so do that. Scour the bottom for two quivers of crossbow arrows and a large medi-pack. Note the closed underwater door in the north wall before pulling up onto the nearest ledge. You'll find more UZI firepower in the SE corner. In the opposite NW corner is a floor lever that opens a door in the south wall.

Enter the south doorway and take a standing jump with grab to land on a block facing a nondescript torch-lit room. Hop down to the floor and find that there are more crossbow arrows to pick up near the SW corner. In an alcove near the NE corner is some shotgun ammo, and in the SE corner is a small medi-pack. Doesn't seem to be anything more to do in here, so climb back up onto the block and take a standing jump and grab to the pool entrance. Pull up and go over to the east ledge. Climb up onto the long block and take a standing jump and grab to the pillar in the NE corner. Pull up and turn around. Jump straight up and grab the higher ledge. Pull up and run across to the other end.

Take a running jump to the south ledge and pick up the uzi ammo. Hop back and grab the ledge, then shimmy to the right past both seated pharaoh statues. Pull up at the SW corner and use the wall ladder to access the higher ledge above. Shift to the left, drop down onto the ledge and run to the other side. Jump across to the ledge in the east wall and run to the other end. A long angled running jump will bring you to the ledge in the south wall. Pick up the HAND OF ORION, and a flyby shows the underwater door opening. The large ledge in the upper NW corner is superfluous, so take a swan dive from here down into the pool.

Go into the north doorway and follow the passage to an air hole. Even before you pull out you can tell that the place is infested with scorpions, so evade their stings as best you can while pouring lead into their crimson carcasses (I counted four). Locate the flares in the SE corner, then go over to the hole in the dark SW corner, light a flare and jump to the pole. Slide down into an underground tunnel for SECRET #3 and a small medi-pack. Climb back out and back flip to the scorpion room. Another scorpion is on the loose, so dispose of it. Now locate the water hole across from the one that brought you here, and jump into it.

There's an apparent short cut available to you here, but if you take advantage of it you miss out on a secret. Locate the floor switch in the NE corner, and be prepared to take an immediate back flip when you throw it, to avoid the overhead boulder that would otherwise drive your head into your shoulders and worse. The doors in the east wall open, allowing you to run up the ramp and finish the level a little more quickly.

Swim down and take the nearer north passage. Turn left at the end, swim up, dogleg slightly to your left and locate a large opening where you can surface and pull out into SECRET #4. This room is guarded by a couple of mummies, so put that crossbow to good use and blow them away with a single explosive arrow. Locate and pick up the large medi-pack, the crossbow arrows flares, then jump back into the water and swim over to the NE end of the underwater area. Turn left and swim under the opening, then turn up and swim to another large opening where you can pull out onto a ledge overlooking a large room with deadly burning embers covering the entire floor.

Take a running jump east to the smaller ledge, then stand at the NW corner and take a running jump and grab to the tallest pillar north. Turn left, go to the far edge and take a running jump to the ledge against the west wall. Turn right and stand with your nose against the north wall. Light a flare, jump up to grab the crack in the wall, and shimmy to your right and around the corner until you reach a crawl space that you can pull into. Crawl forward until you can stand up, then pick up two quivers of crossbow arrows. This looks like a secret, smells like a secret and feels like a secret, but for some reason you're not rewarded with the chiming sounds of a secret. Back out of the crawl space and shimmy left until you reach the ledge you started from. Turn right and take a running jump east back to the tallest pillar.

Turn left and take a running jump north to the next pillar, and a running jump and grab to the final pillar. Pull up and turn right, take a standing jump and grab to the east wall, and pull up into the opening. Run forward and pull up into the crawl space. You get a fixed camera angle as heroic music plays. When you can stand up, run forward and pick up the small medi-pack on the central platform. A ninja is alerted, so kill him. He drops the LASER SIGHT, but you have no apparent use for it in this level. Hop down and approach the south double doors, which open automatically. Continue south through the next set of double doors that also open obligingly for you, and enter the room where you would have come out had you used the previously mentioned short cut in the scorpion room. (The opening to the ramp leading down to the scorpion room is on your right.)

Check the ledges in this room for a large medi-pack, flares and uzi ammo. Another ninja appears on the scene, and he'll drop more uzi ammo for you when you kill him. Now go into the next room north and shoot the vases if you feel like it (although all four are empty). Hop onto the west ledge and disturb another ninja in the alcove to your left. Yep, more uzi ammo. You'll find some flares in the opposite alcove. Go back out and approach the north doorway to the next room. Before leaving this room, however, climb up onto the ledge to your right for a small medi-pack, and onto the opposite ledge to your left for more uzi ammo.

Hop down and enter the next room north. There are no more pickups in here, so continue forward and the next set of double doors will open upon your approach. Hop down the large stairs as you get a fixed camera angle. Turn right at the bottom, and once more a set of double doors opens as you approach. Light a flare so you can find and pick up some more UZI firepower in the dark corner ahead and slightly to your right. Go back to the wide passage, and be aware that the dark grill-like structures in the walls spit out darts. Crawl under or jump over them as you make your way north down the hall. Take a right past the first grill and turn to your right into an alcove for some uzi ammo. Reverse roll and run into the opposite alcove for SECRET #5 and a large medi-pack. This is such a pathetic secret that I can't help but believe that the builder meant to place the secret chimes in the crawl space above the glowing embers room, but forgot to do so, and this is his or her way of making amends.

Go back to the hall and resume your way north. Run down the sandy ramp and insert the Hand of Orion in the receptacle in the south wall. The adjacent door opens, so go inside and vault up into the trench. Looks ripe for a trap of some kind. Walk forward carefully, and hop over the spike pit. Continue forward and pull up to a higher passage at the end. As you run forward two ninjas burst out of the alcoves to your right and left. Kill them both and go to the opening where you get a fixed camera angle overlooking an oasis.

Don't hop down to the ground yet. Instead, turn around and pull up onto the overhead face block. Camera control is then restored. Turn to your right and take a running jump slightly NE onto a flat spot. Take another running jump NE to a slightly higher flat spot. Turn to your left and pull up onto the block. Turn right and, from the right side of the block, take a running jump and grab east to the next block. Pull up and take another running jump east to land on the SHOTGUN for SECRET #6. Pick up the shotgun and slide down from here to the ground. Jump into the small pool for a refreshing swim, then dive down and scour the floor for some crossbow arrows in the NW corner and a large medi-pack next to the north wall.

Pull out and climb the hills to the west for some shotgun ammo. Go back down and slide into the nearby trench to end the level.