ASPIDETR EASTER TIME 2021 - ANTAS DUNGEON REMAKE
Level by Talos
Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth (with the help of Doggett TV's video walk
Level 1: PROLOGUE: CAIRO, CITY OF THE DEAD
An opening flyby takes place during a discussion in Italian between a Warrior and our protagonist, Claudio:
Warrior: Health and peace, brother! You are looking for the tomb of the King of the City, a powerful and mysterious deity.
Claudio: Here's the money for your trouble. And now?
Warrior: Be careful! There are artifacts that should not be found. Arcane, forgotten rites, buried in the sands.
During the discussion Claudio's Log has appeared in your inventory. It's quite difficult to read because of the mosaic background. Go to the NE corner, hop over the obstruction with grab and stoop to pick up light sticks (flares). In the opening on the other side of the Warrior are more light sticks. At the NW and SW corners are still more light sticks, bringing your total to 51 if you haven't yet used any.
Exit S to the next room and go through the open SW and N doors to an outdoor area. Note the closed gates ahead to your right. It appears you have your choice of vehicles, a camel or a Jeep. For now, however, loop around left and follow the street S (past a building to your left that we'll visit shortly), W, S again and W again through a couple of fixed cameras. When you reach a dead end, pull up right and shoot the jug surrounded by stubby columns for the GOLDEN KEY. Go back the way you came, and when you reach the E building go around it to the right. Climb the block at the NE corner of the building and use the ladder to reach an upper balcony.
Turn around and take a running jump S to grab the roof of the next building. Shimmy right until you're over the opening, pull up, allow Claudio to fall back down and hit the action key when he has cleared the roof so he'll glide into the opening below. This is apparently intended by the builder, as I could not reach the opening with a direct jump from the balcony. Shoot the jug for the ORNATE KEY and drop to the ground. Climb the NE ladder to reach the balcony once again. Place the Golden Key in the receptacle to open the door to your right.
Go on through and come to a small courtyard on the other side of the building. Take a running jump N over the Jeep and camel down below and grab the jutting ledge. Pull up, hop down into the shallow trench and find the receptacle for the Ornate Key. A gate opens higher up N, so enter another courtyard and push the floor lever for a cut scene showing two large gates opening (but not the ones you saw earlier). Grab the small medipack from the nearby corner, exit through the gate and drop down to the street.
Go S and W as you did earlier and find the opened gates straight ahead. Go on in and pull up onto a ledge in front of a ladder hole. Climb or simply drop down into the water below, pull out E and walk forward to read an inscription on a stele: "The ritual regenerates the King of the City in one beneath the Heaven, in honor of the gods! I am the Abomination, born of Baal-Hammon. Melqart, Lord of Tyre! Men, gods, spirits and the dead, stay away from me. I am the Abomination!"
Take THE SINNER'S PRAYER from the nearby slab. A gate opens somewhere. Jump to grab the ladder, shift left around the corner and climb back up. Back flip near the top and return to the street. Go back the way you came, and when you reach the camel and the Jeep, the opened gate is ahead to your left. Go inside for the JEEP KEY KEYCHAIN. You already have the Jeep Key Piece in your inventory, so combine the two and go crank up the Jeep with the JEEP KEY. Turn left and drive generally W (turning a bit left and then a bit right), go down a hill and turn right into a fixed camera. Go up another hill into a narrow alley with a closed gate that opens as you bump against it. Drive down into a lower street as the gate closed behind you and exit the Jeep.
Climb the S ledge to find a floor lever. Push it to open both the gates near the camel and the gate you just drove through. Get back into the Jeep (in the video Claudio chose to go back on foot, which is fine if that's what you prefer), drive back and turn left at the camel through the opened gates. Go up the ramp to your right for a level change and another conversation.
Level 2: ANTAS DUNGEON
Claudio: I found the tomb of the King of the City, Melqart!
Jean: How can you be sure of your discovery?
Claudio: I'm sure! It is located in the basement of the ancient Punic temple of Antas. There were many contacts between the ancient Egyptians and the Carthaginians.
Jean: Claudio, in that archaeological area they have dug long before you!
Claudio: In Cairo I found a stele where he talks about him and a certain arcane rite.
Jean: You're always the usual hothead! I know it's useless to contradict you, because you always act on your own. Many archaeologists have searched for the tomb in vain. If you decide to dig without any authorization, you will be no different than a tomb raider! Oh, blessed youth...
Pull back the skeleton to expose the CROSSBOW and open the nearby trap door. Safety drop down, crawl out N into a dark passageway and light a flare to see the explosive arrows. Go through the curtain into the next area and wait for the skeleton to arrive. Locate the pushblock, pull it S two times and move it W five times underneath a wall ornament to open a door up in the N wall. Get on the pushblock and jump to grab the N opening. Pull up and blow away the approaching mummy as you enter a dark upper room.
Search the W ledge for 2 x small medipack and take TALOS'S SCROLL from the central block. A jug near the N wall hides light sticks. Activate the SE jumpswitch by squeezing between the wall and the column. The NE door opens, so go there and drop down to a new section. Pick up the light sticks, shoot the jug blocking the connecting passage and enter a larger room.
Claudio: Amazing! These ruins show clear Egyptian, Carthaginian and Roman footprints. The cult of the King of the City has survived the centuries.
Grab the light sticks in the middle of the floor, note the statue pushpiece and go around the central column to find a second statue pushpiece. Shoot the empty jugs to get them out of your way and push the N pushpiece three times W. Push the S pushpiece two times E and hop up past the curtains into the W opening. The spike traps here are not yet active, so pick up the explosive arrows in the SW corner and move the smaller pushpiece from the SE alcove into the NE alcove. The N gate opens in the previous room, so go there as you hear a skeleton approaching from the other side.
Pick up the explosive arrows at the entrance, shoot the jug for a small medipack and continue through the passage for more explosive arrows. Get down to a fenced-off area with a ledge on one side and a lower pond on the other. Go down N into the deeper water and swim past the skeletal remains for explosive arrows and light sticks. Continue E, but stay high to avoid the spikes shooting up from the floor. Make your way through not one but three giant cigar cutters and surface S in the next room for air. Pull out for a flyby through the area ahead.
Step forward for a large medipack and shoot the two skeletons coming toward you from ahead and from the left. Tread carefully in this area, as giant swords (two, anyway) will drop randomly from the ceiling. Go to the column fragment beyond the SE green jar and stoop for more explosive arrows, which should fortify you sufficiently for the moment. Go up the E steps into another room. Turn left, climb onto the blocks and up onto the N ledge. Jump up to grab the marked ceiling and monkey swing all the way across the room to drop onto a S ledge. Loop around to a floor lever that opens an E gate below.
Drop down, go on through to a palatial room and shoot the awakened skeleton. (A second skeleton may show up either now or much later when you return to this room.) There are light sticks on the floor near the SE corner. Look up on the E wall near the NE corner to see four jump switches arranged in a row. The marked ceiling tiles tell you which ones to activate, the two on either end. The gate at the top of the middle N stairs opens, so go there and activate another jump switch in the darkness ahead from standing at the entrance. Pick up explosive arrows near the spot where you landed and go around past a ladder to find a pushpiece. Move it into the nearby SE corner (you can squeeze between the pushpiece and the wall to position yourself) to open the door above the ladder.
Climb the ladder and pull up to the previous room. Loop around right and go up the NW stairs, drop to the room below and climb over the NE block into a pool room. Jump into the water, swim down into the lowest part for explosive arrows near the skeleton, swim up to the fence in the N wall and open it on the right side. Go inside, look for a small medipack near the far end of the checkered floor, surface and pull out near an opening to an outdoor shrine. First, pick up the explosive arrows, then step outside and shoot a couple of mummies. Locate the floor lever and push it to trigger an extended flyby through previously explored territory.
Return to the water hole, swim back the way you came, pull out and exit SE to the palatial room. Note that the S pot is now aflame. Go through the W opening into the room where the swords fell from the ceiling, go up to the slope in the SW corner and make a very tricky jump to activate the jump switch hidden by the plants on the S side of the hanging block. I did it by standing about a step and a half away from the W wall, facing N, and taking a back flip onto the slope while keeping the action key depressed.
When you're successful a gate opens, so run forward, turn left through the curtains, pick up the explosive arrows in the hallway and find the opened gate at the SW corner. Enter, crawl underneath the dart trap and go past the curtains at the corner to encounter an active spike trap. Get past it, go through more curtains to find a scissor-blade trap, get past it as well and open the doors at the end of the passage. Pull up into the room with the statue pushpieces, turn left and go through the connecting S passage to the small dungeon, hop up right into the opening and slide down into a dark room.
Pick up a TORCH from the pile near the E opening. If you're guessing that you have to light it at that burning pot you noted earlier, you're right, and it's a long way back. Retrace your steps back to the N room with the statue pushpieces, up through the curtains at the NE corner, past the traps in the winding passage, into the room where the swords fell, and straight through E to the palatial room where you can light the torch. Go around to the other pot on the N side and light it. You have no further need of the torch, so you can now toss it. The three S doors have opened, so enter the rooms one by one to find a small medipack (left room), poisoned arrows (middle room) and poisoned arrows and the NEOPUNIC BYZANTINE FIGURE in the room on the right.
Return and go up the steps into the E room to find an empty stand N to place Talos's Scroll. Pause to play a syncopated tune on the nearby harp, read a bit more and continue up the E steps to an outdoor courtyard. Take the DAGGER OF MELQART from the plinth to intiate another level change.
Level 3: KING OF THE CITY
After a brief flyby showing someone on his hands and knees looking for something, walk forward to trigger a log entry confirming that you needed both The Sinner's Prayer and the Dagger of Melqart to get this far. Go up the ramp and the gate ahead opens as you get close (as closes behind you as you enter the next room).
Shoot the large jar on your right for 2 x explosive arrows (the traditional kind, unlike the others you found earlier) and 2 x large medipack. Go E past a closed gate and a receptacle for more explosive arrows and a large medipack in the SE corner. The nearly jar hides more explosive arrows, as does the one near the NE corner. The NW corner has light sticks and a jar with more explosive arrows. Now that you've explored the periphery of this room, it's time to venture within to see what happens.
Sure enough, when you approach the foot of the sarcophagus, Claudio creeps up onto the reclining figure, plucks something from its heart and causes Melqart to materialize. Put all that explosive ammo to good use and pepper Melqart with it until he himself explodes, leaving behind the GOLDEN ANKH. Place it in the receptacle you saw earlier to open the S gate. Go on through for a concluding flyby.