Tomb Raider Glitches FAQ Version 1.6 By Colin Chalmers [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.1 About This FAQ ------------------- Tomb Raider is one of my all time favourite games. I've come across a lot of interesting things while playing it, and so I decided it was about time to write an FAQ listing them all. This FAQ is the first I've written, so I'd love to hear any comments you have - just e-mail me or post in the Tomb Raider board. I've called this a Glitches FAQ because that's what the majority of it is about, but that's not all it's confined to. I've tried to include as much as possible that I think may be of interest. There are shortcuts, hidden things you might not notice, and even some ramblings on what the level designers get up to behind your back. This guide refers to the PlayStation version of the original Tomb Raider. I know at least some of this stuff works on other platforms, and on later versions of the game, but I won't cover those here. SPOILERS: I'll assume that anyone reading this has completed the game at least once, and has found all the secrets. It'll also be easier to understand what I'm talking about if you can actually remember the levels! Finally, if you'd like to see some of what's here in action, here's a video I made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbKXRIekrac 1.2 Legal Information ---------------------- Copyright 2005-2009 Colin Chalmers. This FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. The following sites have permission to use this FAQ: www.gamefaqs.com (and affiliates) www.neoseeker.com www.supercheats.com 1.3 Version History -------------------- Version 1.6 - 26/10/09 Added: 5.2.4 Ghost Ceiling 1 5.2.6 Inactive Wolf 5.4.4 Qualopec Switch Texture 5.7.4 Trap Pierre Changed: 5.6.4 Second Secret - Guaranteed Method Version 1.5 - 02/02/08 Added: 5.2.1 Get Stuck in the Wall 5.2.2 Skip to the Final Room 5.7.1 Jump Through the Wall 5.8.6 Inactive Lion 1 5.8.7 Walk on Midas's Hand 5.11.3 Glitchy Movable Block 5.11.8 Ghost Trapdoor 2 5.11.9 Easy Secret Version 1.4 - 04/07/07 Added: 5.1.3 Ark of the Covenant 5.3.1 Real Artifacts 5.4.3 Ghost Ceiling 5.5.1 Break the Level 5.13.1 Dodgy Collisions 5.13.2 Well-Hidden Medipack 7.2 Pistols Only, No Medipacks Changed: 4.29 The Load Game Bug Version 1.3 - 30/10/06 Added: 4.11 Enemies Can Climb on Blocks 4.23 See Items Through Ledges 4.30 Lara's Passport 5.2.2 Mayan Calendar 5.4.1 Black Screen 1 5.5.1 Room With Movable Pillars Shortcut 5.6.8 Falling Block Trick 5.7.1 Illegal Slope 3 5.7.2 First Room Alternate Route 5.7.6 Same Shortcut, Yet Another Way 5.8.3 How the Spike Room and the Pillar Room Work 5.8.5 Aqueduct Shortcut 5.10.2 Strange Camera 5.10.3 The Floating Block Prison 5.10.4 Avoid Reversing the Current 5.10.7 Overlapping Rooms 5.11.4 Black Screen 2 5.11.6 Ghost Trapdoor 5.14.4 Black Screen 3 5.15.1 Disappearing Texture Changed: 5.12.1 Return to City of Khamoon ... Version 1.2 - 11/01/06 Added: 5.5.3 The Fifth and Sixth Pieces of the Scion 5.9.4 Get Trapped in the Gold Key Room 5.14.3 Missing Sound Effect 5.14.4 Squeeze Past Boulders 5.14.5 Re-open the Boulder Room Gate 5.14.8 Cabin Glitch 5.14.10 Beat the Annoying Door Changed: 4.25 Hear Music/See Camera Changes Again 5.14.6 Lara's Spare Pistols Removed: 5.8.3 Broken Pillar Glitch Version 1.1 - 14/07/05 Added: 4.12 Fast-Forward Lara 5.4.4 Illegal Slopes 5.4.5 Pointless Cogs 5.6.2 Skip the Gorilla Room and Pierre 5.6.3 First Secret - Guaranteed Method 5.6.4 Second Secret - Guaranteed Method 5.6.7 Fourth Secret - Cheat Method 5.10.1 Jump in Mid-air Changed: 4.24 Missing Music Tracks 5.12.5 Skip the Blue Room Version 1.0 - 23/04/05 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The main information in this FAQ is divided into three sections. The first part contains things you probably already know, but I just wanted to include here for completeness. The second part lists any glitches and tricks that can be applied to lots of places. Finally, the third part is a kind of walkthrough, taking you through anything of interest in the order that it occurs in the game. To jump to anything in the contents, just do a search for the appropriate number and title. 1. Introduction 1.1 About This FAQ 1.2 Legal Information 1.3 Version History 2. Contents 3. The Basics 3.1 Level Skip Cheat 3.2 All Guns Cheat 3.3 All Guns/Infinite Ammo 3.4 Swan Dive 3.5 Handstand 3.6 Extra Use For Sidestep Buttons 3.7 Holding Buttons 3.8 Underwater Objects 3.9 Walk Through Spikes 3.10 Survive Longer Underwater/On Fire 4. General Glitches 4.1 The Corner Bug 4.2 The Safety Drop Bug 4.3 The Hole Bug 4.4 The Fence Bug 4.5 The Movable Block Bug 4.6 Collapsing Floor Glitch 1 4.7 Collapsing Floor Glitch 2 4.8 Survive Any Drop 4.9 Send Creatures to the Top of the Level 1 4.10 Send Creatures to the Top of the Level 2 4.11 Enemies Can Climb on Blocks 4.12 Fun With Movable Blocks 4.13 Fast-Forward Lara 4.14 Look Through Doors 4.15 The Door Test 4.16 Jump Through Open Doors 4.17 Delayed Keyhole 4.18 Fire Backwards 4.19 Access Inventory When Dead 4.20 Inactive Enemies 4.21 Floating Bodies 4.22 Enemy Overload 4.23 See Items Through Ledges 4.24 Weird Textures 4.25 Stop Pierre Appearing 4.26 Missing Music Tracks 4.27 Hear Music/See Camera Changes Again 4.28 The Restart Level Bug 4.29 The Load Game Bug 4.30 Lara's Passport 4.31 What Happens When the Level Changes 5. The Alternative Walkthrough 5.1 Lara's Home 5.1.1 Blue Compass 5.1.2 Missing Tutorial Messages 5.1.3 Ark of the Covenant 5.1.4 Continue After Exiting Pool 5.2 Caves 5.2.1 Get Stuck in the Wall 5.2.2 Skip to the Final Room 5.2.3 Bridge Glitch 5.2.4 Ghost Ceiling 1 5.2.5 Mayan Calendar 5.2.6 Inactive Wolf 5.3 City of Vilcabamba 5.3.1 Real Artifacts 5.4 Lost Valley 5.4.1 Black Screen 1 5.4.2 Repeating Waterfall Glitch 5.4.3 Ghost Ceiling 2 5.4.4 Qualopec Switch Texture 5.4.5 Peek at the T-Rex 5.4.6 Stand Inside a Bridge Section 5.4.7 Illegal Slopes 5.4.8 Pointless Cogs 5.5 Tomb of Qualopec 5.5.1 Break the Level 5.5.2 Room With Movable Pillars Shortcut 5.5.3 Falling Mummy 5.5.4 The Fourth Piece of the Scion 5.5.5 The Fifth and Sixth Pieces of the Scion 5.6 St. Francis' Folly 5.6.1 Keyhole Texture 5.6.2 Skip the Gorilla Room and Pierre 5.6.3 First Secret - Guaranteed Method 5.6.4 Second Secret - Guaranteed Method 5.6.5 Wall of Water 1 5.6.6 Shimmy Glitch 1 5.6.7 Fourth Secret - Cheat Method 5.6.8 Falling Block Trick 5.7 Colosseum 5.7.1 Jump Through the Wall 5.7.2 Illegal Slope 3 5.7.3 First Room Alternate Route 5.7.4 Trap Pierre 5.7.5 Palace Midas Textures 5.7.6 The Worst Spike Pit Ever 5.7.7 Same Shortcut, Different Way 5.7.8 Same Shortcut, Yet Another Way 5.8 Palace Midas 5.8.1 The Unreachable Medipack 5.8.2 Quick Way Onto Switch Platform 5.8.3 How the Spike Room and the Pillar Room Work 5.8.4 Invisible Creature Barrier 5.8.5 Aqueduct Shortcut 5.8.6 Inactive Lion 1 5.8.7 Walk on Midas's Hand 5.8.8 Inactive Lion 2 5.9 The Cistern 5.9.1 Inactive Water Rats 5.9.2 Shimmy Glitch 2 5.9.3 Room With Two Crocodiles Shortcut 5.9.4 Get Trapped in the Gold Key Room 5.10 Tomb of Tihocan 5.10.1 Jump in Mid-air 5.10.2 Strange Camera 5.10.3 The Floating Block Prison 5.10.4 Avoid Reversing the Current 5.10.5 Wall of Water 2 5.10.6 Watch the Floating Blocks Appear 5.10.7 Overlapping Rooms 5.10.8 Make the Level Impossible 5.11 City of Khamoon 5.11.1 How the City of Khamoon Works 5.11.2 "Saphire" Key 5.11.3 Glitchy Movable Block 5.11.4 Skip the Statues Room 5.11.5 Black Screen 2 5.11.6 Skip to the End of the Level 5.11.7 Ghost Trapdoor 1 5.11.8 Ghost Trapdoor 2 5.11.9 Easy Secret 5.12 Obelisk of Khamoon 5.12.1 Return to City of Khamoon ... 5.12.2 ... Then Skip to the End of Obelisk of Khamoon ... 5.12.3 ... Then Get Trapped in Darkness 5.12.4 Skip the Brown Room 5.12.5 Skip the Blue Room 5.13 Sanctuary of the Scion 5.13.1 Dodgy Collisions 5.13.2 Well-Hidden Medipack 5.13.3 Larson Doesn't Attack 5.14 Natla's Mines 5.14.1 Massive Shortcut Part 1 5.14.2 Massive Shortcut Part 2 5.14.3 Missing Sound Effect 5.14.4 Black Screen 3 5.14.5 Squeeze Past Boulders 5.14.6 Re-open the Boulder Room Gate 5.14.7 Rubbish Shortcut 5.14.8 Lara's Spare Pistols 5.14.9 Cabin Glitch 5.14.10 Skip Some of the Final Section 5.14.11 Beat the Annoying Door 5.15 Atlantis 5.15.1 Disappearing Texture 5.15.2 Invisible Wall 1 and Shortcut 5.15.3 Avoid Releasing the Lava 5.15.4 Skip the Boulder Room 5.15.5 Inactive Flying Mutant 1 5.15.6 Inactive Flying Mutant 2 5.15.7 Skip Half of the White Ridge Room 5.15.8 Invisible Wall 2 5.15.9 Atlantean Lara Glitch 5.15.10 Hidden Door 5.15.11 Spot the Difference 5.16 The Great Pyramid 5.16.1 The Scion Pedestal 5.16.2 Final Secret Glitch 6. Historical Information 6.1 Thor 6.2 Atlas 6.3 Neptune 6.4 Damocles 6.5 Midas 7. Challenges 7.1 No Medipacks 7.2 Pistols Only, No Medipacks 7.3 No Guns 8. Credits 9. The End ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The Basics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.1 Level Skip Cheat --------------------- Open the inventory screen and enter one of the following codes: NTSC version: L2, R2, L1, Circle, Triangle, L1, R2, L2 PAL version: L2, R2, Triangle, L1, L1, Circle, R2, L2 This will immediately end the current level. 3.2 All Guns Cheat ------------------- Open the inventory screen and press either of the following: NTSC version: L1, Triangle, R2, L2, L2, R2, Circle, L1 PAL version: L1, Triangle, L2, R2, R2, L2, Circle, L1 This will give you the Shotgun with 166 shells and the Magnums and Uzis with 999 rounds each. Note that this ammo isn't added to what you had before, it replaces it. Also, these values aren't the maximums - you can collect more than this in the normal way. 3.3 All Guns/Infinite Ammo --------------------------- Complete the game and save when it asks. Now when you load any level you will have all the guns with infinite ammo (even on Natla's Mines, where you normally start without weapons). This also applies to any new games you start. To remove the effect and start a new game as normal you will have to reset the game or load an incomplete file first. 3.4 Swan Dive -------------- Hold Walk while doing a forward jump (standing or running). It has very little use other than saving time when swimming to the bottom of deep pools. Lara can only survive very short drops when diving. 3.5 Handstand -------------- Hold Walk while pulling up after grabbing a ledge. It has no purpose whatsoever other than looking cool. 3.6 Extra Use For Sidestep Buttons ----------------------------------- While hanging onto a ledge, instead of using left/right to shimmy you can use L2/R2. 3.7 Holding Buttons -------------------- When you want Lara to do something as soon as possible simply hold the required button down and she will do it as soon as she's finished what she's currently doing. This works with every command in the game, and is very useful for doing a series of jumps, drawing guns quickly, or even jumping off a trapdoor before it opens. 3.8 Underwater Objects ----------------------- There's an easy method to pick up items or use levers while underwater. All you have to do is get Lara into the "cube" that contains the object, then keep holding X. She will automatically drift towards the item or lever until she reaches it. 3.9 Walk Through Spikes ------------------------ Hardly worth pointing out, but since it isn't in the instructions and you never actually have to do it in the game I thought I'd include it. Just keep holding Walk and you won't take any damage from spikes. 3.10 Survive Longer Underwater/On Fire --------------------------------------- If your air has run out while underwater and you're losing health, keep using medipacks to stay alive until you get to the surface. You can also use this trick while on fire, to buy yourself enough time to get to some water (you might need a lot of medipacks for this to be useful, though). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. General Glitches ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1 The Corner Bug ------------------- This is used to get Lara onto otherwise unreachable ledges. For this to work, you need a convex corner with a clear surface on top. If possible there should be no overhanging arch or ceiling; however, I have managed to perform this bug with an arch in the way so it's not completely essential. You'll also find this easier to do if there's a drop to the side. As an example, I'll use the "Unreachable Medipack" in the switch room of Palace Midas, which this glitch is perfect for. Stand on the ledge next to the pillar with the medipack on top. Now use walk and sidestep to get Lara as close as possible to the convex corner, and turn at about 45 degrees. You should be facing the switch platform. Now jump. Lara should move forward a little. Keep jumping and she should move slightly into the pillar. If not, change the direction you're facing and try again. When you eventually get the positioning right, keep jumping and Lara should end up far enough inside the pillar that the game considers this illegal and repositions her on top. If you get Lara to the perfect position and angle you can get this to work in just two jumps. You usually need about four or five, however. If you've jumped more than five times without any effect you're not in the right place - adjust the direction Lara's facing and try again. Once you've got the bug to work with a drop to the side, try it on flat ground. It's harder this way because you don't have an edge to line up against to get the positioning right, but in theory it should work in exactly the same way. It's possible to do a similar trick while swimming underwater in later versions of the game, but I've never managed to do this in Tomb Raider 1. 4.2 The Safety Drop Bug ------------------------ This useful glitch allows you to reach a ledge directly below the one you're standing on, where the fall is too far to use the usual "drop and grab" method. An example of where to use this is the series of platforms in the middle of the gods room in St Francis' Folly. Stand with your back to the ledge, then tap backwards and hold X as if you were going to do the normal safety drop. Instead, immediately release X so that Lara doesn't get the chance to grab the ledge. She should now fall at a slight angle and land on the ledge below. 4.3 The Hole Bug ----------------- The Hole Bug works in a very similar way to the Safety Drop Bug above. Instead of dropping backwards from above the ledge you want to get to, you jump from the other side of the hole. For example, you can use it to easily reach the ledge with the Magnum clips at the end of the room with two gorillas and Pierre in The Cistern. Do a forward jump and hold X as if to grab a ledge (there doesn't actually have to be a ledge there for this to work, however). Now release X and let Lara fall as before, and she should land in the opening. 4.4 The Fence Bug ------------------ Use this bug to walk through fences. A fence is any two-dimensional surface at the edge of a square: the ones in City/Obelisk of Khamoon are perfect. Find a spot where two fences meet in a straight line (not where one fence meets a wall). Now simply run at the gap at a certain angle and Lara should pass through. The hardest part is finding the right angle - try following the steps below to get it right. Stand directly in front of the place where the two fences join. Hop back, and sidestep to the side. Turn to face the join again, then run at it. If Lara collides with the fence as normal, try sidestepping the other way or running from slightly further back. If she collides with the fence and slides along it slightly you're on the right lines - try some minor changes of angle. If she falls through the fence but then reappears on the same side again you're practically there - just try again. I find the technique above works reasonably well, but feel free to try and find a better one. Once you've got the hang of it you could probably manage to run straight through fences without stopping to line yourself up first. 4.5 The Movable Block Bug -------------------------- This simple glitch lets you squeeze through the gap between a movable block and a wall. The block must be touching the wall corner-to-corner, with free space on the two remaining squares. For example, the four blocks in the first room of the Obelisk of Khamoon are in the right position. Now stand at an angle of 45 degrees to the corner and do a sideways jump towards it. Lara will somehow get through this tiny gap and land on the other side. --- The five glitches listed above are described on various websites, but the one I found most useful was www.tombraiders.net. I've used the same names for the glitches here as on that site. There are pictures and animations there which will be helpful if you have difficulty following the instructions I've given. 4.6 Collapsing Floor Glitch 1 ------------------------------ Stand on any tile that crumbles when you step on it. Immediately hop backwards and grab hold of the edge of the tile before it falls. Lara will be left holding on to nothing, and will be unable to shimmy or pull up. If you drop down, she will "teleport" to the ground, regardless of the distance. * Thanks to joe042293 for this glitch. 4.7 Collapsing Floor Glitch 2 ------------------------------ This is almost the same as the above glitch, but is easier to do. Stand on a crumbling tile, then before it falls take a backward step (hold Walk). Instead of falling, Lara will immediately appear on the ground unharmed. 4.8 Survive Any Drop --------------------- Not quite as good as it sounds, unfortunately, because for this to work you need an enemy nearby. Stand with your back to the drop you want to make, and keep holding Walk and Back. Now wait for the enemy to hit Lara - with a bit of luck she should teleport to the ground below. The more force the creature hits Lara with, the more chance this has of working. Bats aren't big enough to knock her backwards but the Atlantean mutants (and their fireballs) work well. 4.9 Send Creatures to the Top of the Level 1 --------------------------------------------- This one's great fun. Whenever an enemy walks onto a square with a movable block on it (or if you push the block onto the enemy), it reappears on top of the block. However, if there is a ceiling directly above the block, the enemy will get placed right at the top of the level (i.e. deep inside the ceiling). If you look around you at the ground, you will still be able to see its shadow. It will move around as usual, without going anywhere it couldn't get to normally, with the exception that it can't touch you. While the enemy is running around like this it is slowly "sinking" back down through the ceiling, until it eventually falls back into the room. Some good places to try this are in the Tomb of Qualopec, with the raptors, and in the City of Khamoon, with the first mummy you come across. 4.10 Send Creatures to the Top of the Level 2 ---------------------------------------------- You can achieve exactly the same effect as the glitch above, but with a save crystal instead of a movable block. Find a save crystal with a ceiling directly above it and stand next to it. When a creature moves onto the same square as you, save your game. Now whenever you reload from that point the creature will get stuck in the ceiling as before. You can try this in the Tomb of Qualopec, with the raptors again, at the save point after the three gates. This also works in several of the narrow corridors in Atlantis. 4.11 Enemies Can Climb on Blocks --------------------------------- Normally if you climb on top of a movable block you're safe from any hungry animals on the ground below. This isn't always the case, however. Movable blocks seem to have a special zone assigned that they're "supposed" to be in, and if you take one out of this zone creatures can step up onto it easily. You can try this at the start of Obelisk of Khamoon by pushing the right-most block into the corridor with the panther, or by taking any of the blocks out the front entrance to that room. You can also do it with the first and last blocks in the Cistern, the one in Tomb of Tihocan you push onto different tiles to open doors, and probably many other places. * Thanks to guido37 for this glitch and the explanation. 4.12 Fun With Movable Blocks ----------------------------- Move a block into a position such that there is a fence or closed door between it and you. Now push the block forwards. Lara will pass through the fence or door, then when she finishes pushing she will reappear back outside the door again. However, it's not always quite as simple as that - sometimes you get treated to quite strange camera movements, sometimes the screen goes black for a while, and so on. Try doing this trick on the first door to the right in the Tomb of Qualopec (you'll have to use the Movable Block Bug to get a block there). You can push the block multiple times by keeping X pressed, despite the screen going completely black, and when you let go sometimes Lara doesn't reappear... 4.13 Fast-Forward Lara ----------------------- Holding X in front of a movable block makes Lara go into her "ready" stance. If you do this while Lara is still doing something (like getting up after a jump, for example), she will finish what she's doing first, but at about twice the speed. The best way to see this is to stand in front of a block, take two hops back, then dive forwards. If you hold X you'll get to see Lara collide with the block then stand up in fast-forward. 4.14 Look Through Doors ------------------------ I had to include this classic. Simply use the Look button to get the camera to touch a door. By experimenting with the camera you can sometimes see quite a lot of what's beyond it. Try looking to see what's behind the doors at the start of St Francis' Folly and Atlantis. 4.15 The Door Test ------------------- If you ever want to know whether something is just a wall or is actually a hidden door, just run into it. If it's a wall, Lara will crash into it and stop, but if it's a door she'll keep running on the spot. 4.16 Jump Through Open Doors ----------------------------- Well, obviously you can jump through the space left behind by an open door, but I'm talking about the actual door, okay? Simply stand where the hinges would be, turn to 45 degrees, and do a sideways jump. Lara should jump through the gap between the door and the wall in the same sort of way as with the Movable Block Bug. * Thanks again, joe042293. 4.17 Delayed Keyhole --------------------- When inserting a key into a keyhole or an item into a holder, keep holding Triangle. When Lara is done she will immediately draw her guns, and whatever would have happened will not take place (the door will not open, for example). When you press Triangle again to put your guns away the door will open. If you keep your guns drawn and leave the square containing the keyhole the door will not open, even if you then put them away. You can do anything you like and the door will stay shut - it will only open when you return to the square with your guns away. Finally, if you draw your guns to stop the door opening then go and save your game and reload, the game will have forgotten that you put the key in and the door will stay permanently closed. * Credit goes to Joaquim Vale for this one. 4.18 Fire Backwards -------------------- Find a long drop, such as the one at the beginning of the Great Pyramid. Do a dive off it with your guns drawn and fire as you fall. The bullets will hit the wall as if Lara was falling normally, but since she's diving this means she must be firing backwards. 4.19 Access Inventory When Dead -------------------------------- When Lara dies, keep holding left or right. The passport will appear but the item ring will start circling before it can open. Release the direction you're holding while something other than the passport is selected, then press Square to go back. You are now free to check your inventory. You can equip guns and use medipacks like this, but nothing will actually happen. Each time you use something, remember to hold left or right if you want to get back to your inventory. It's possible to use the level skip cheat from here too. 4.20 Inactive Enemies ---------------------- Enemies placed on the map start off in an inactive state, which basically means they don't move and Lara won't try to shoot them. This is so that the animals don't all rush you when the level begins, and instead wait for the right time to attack. They are usually triggered either by walking over a certain patch of floor, or when a door opens. However, if you manage to bypass whatever triggers them you will be able to walk right up to them without them attacking you. If you use one of the glitches or shortcuts listed here to skip part of a level there's a good chance you'll catch one or two enemies still "sleeping". I've only included in the walkthrough the ones where you have to do something specific in order to see them. 4.21 Floating Bodies --------------------- Kill a crocodile or rat underwater, then lower the water level. The dead body will stay floating in mid air. 4.22 Enemy Overload -------------------- If there are too many enemies on the screen at once, the ones furthest away from Lara will flicker in and out of existence. You can see this easily in Palace Midas by luring all of the animals on the lower level through to the room with the five switches, then standing on the central platform and watching closely. 4.23 See Items Through Ledges ------------------------------ Items that are sitting on a ledge one block in thickness (i.e. the thinnest ledge possible in Tomb Raider) can be seen through the bottom of the ledge from over a certain distance away. Examples include the large medipack above the cave at the top of the aqueduct in Palace Midas, the Magnum clips in the room with two gorillas and Pierre in The Cistern, and the small medipack half-way up the gods room in St Francis' Folly. * Guido37 was the first to notice this. 4.24 Weird Textures -------------------- Some surfaces don't have textures assigned to them, and appear as black or see- through areas. Other times, the designers have assigned the wrong texture to a particular area. This occurs throughout the game, but I'll only mention the more interesting of these in the walkthrough. 4.25 Stop Pierre Appearing --------------------------- Pierre "Litterbug" Du Pont appears in two places in St Francis' Folly, the same spot twice in the Colosseum, three places in The Cistern and then twice in the Tomb of Tihocan. You can't kill him at any of these times except the last - you just keep shooting him until he runs away. However, if you simply run past him without making him run away he will stay at that spot for the rest of the level and won't reappear anywhere else (except at the end of the Tomb of Tihocan, where you have to fight him). For example, if you go to the room in The Cistern with the switch to change the water level, Pierre will appear there. Now just leave him alone and he won't bother you in either of his other two locations. 4.26 Missing Music Tracks -------------------------- By playing the Tomb Raider CD as a music CD you'll be able to hear all of the music in the game. Two of these tracks are never actually played anywhere, though. These are: Track 14 (sounds like a slow version of the secret chime) Track 19 (an excerpt of the title screen music, starting at 1:42) 4.27 Hear Music/See Camera Changes Again ----------------------------------------- If you trigger one of the music tracks or camera movements in a level, then save your game and reload, you'll be able to trigger the same one again. This also applies to the things that Natla's henchmen say to you, so if you do this after killing one of them you'll still be able to hear him taunt you if you re- enter the room. 4.28 The Restart Level Bug --------------------------- Selecting Restart Level from the passport should have exactly the same effect as choosing Load Game then selecting your Current Position. Except it doesn't! When you select Restart Level (either after dying or from the inventory), all of the data that appear on the statistics after the level will include your "previous life". In other words, your time taken, kills, pickups and secrets will NOT be reset back to what they were at the save point. In fact, if you keep replaying the same section of the level your kills and pickups could end up being much higher than the number of enemies and items in the level. This glitch is useful when you're trying to collect secrets, because if you die you won't need to bother getting any of the same ones all over again. However, it's not so great if you want to get a fast time. If you want your end level statistics to display correctly you should always load your Current Position instead of choosing Restart Level. Note that this only applies when restarting from a save point, not from the beginning of the level. 4.29 The Load Game Bug ----------------------- At any time during play, open the passport and select Load Game. When the level select screen appears, press Square to cancel, and carry on playing. It appears that nothing has happened, but the game did actually load something. Yes, it's the end-of-level statistics data again! (Did you ever get the feeling that something was added to a game at the last minute?) When you select Load Game without choosing a level, your time taken, kills, pickups and secrets will be set to what they were at the Current Position in that file. If there is no Current Position, they will become what they were at the end of the last level completed, but without any secrets. This trick is easier to do with two files on separate memory cards, but it works just as well if you reload the same file. Here's something to try: go to Lost Valley, collect four secrets and save your game. Now go to any level with three secrets, do the Load Game Bug, then complete the level or use the level skip cheat. Voila: "Secrets: 4 of 3". This technique can also be used to get the infamous final secret (see "Final Secret Glitch"). Just go to Caves, collect secret number 3 and save. Now start up The Great Pyramid and do the Load Game Bug at any point before secret 1 (it's best to do it just before the first save point so you don't have to do it again if you die). You can now play through the level normally, getting the other two secrets, and this time all three will register on the statistics screen. 4.30 Lara's Passport --------------------- I don't think a guide about strange things in Tomb Raider would be complete without a mention of Lara's passport. When you start a new level, sometimes a stamp has been added to the middle pages, which are visible when you highlight Restart Level. I'm going to ignore the obvious point that she is unlikely to run into international customs in an undiscovered tomb, but what is more interesting is the levels that she gets a stamp for. She gets one for each of the first ten levels, with the exception of Tomb of Qualopec and Tomb of Tihocan. After City of Khamoon she doesn't get any more, except at Natla's Mines where she gets two. This sounds completely random, but it actually makes perfect sense if you put the Tomb Raider CD into a PC and check what the filenames of the levels are: LEVEL1.PSX - Caves LEVEL2.PSX - City of Vilcabamba LEVEL3A.PSX - Lost Valley LEVEL3B.PSX - Tomb of Qualopec LEVEL4.PSX - St. Francis' Folly LEVEL5.PSX - Colosseum LEVEL6.PSX - Palace Midas LEVEL7A.PSX - The Cistern LEVEL7B.PSX - Tomb of Tihocan LEVEL8A.PSX - City of Khamoon LEVEL8B.PSX - Obelisk of Khamoon LEVEL8C.PSX - Sanctuary of the Scion LEVEL10A.PSX - Natla's Mines LEVEL10B.PSX - Atlantis LEVEL10C.PSX - The Great Pyramid As you can see, the designers considered some levels to be two or three pieces of one larger level. That's why some levels seem to stop suddenly, like The Cistern or City of Khamoon, and also why you go back to areas that were in previous levels, like in Tomb of Qualopec. Perhaps these were originally one big level, but were split up due to technical limitations. What I find most interesting is level 9, or the lack of it. The mysterious second stamp Lara receives in Natla's Mines obviously comes from this level. Was a level removed at the last minute? Or, more likely, was Sanctuary of the Scion simply changed from Level 9 to Level 8C? I guess we'll never know... 4.31 What Happens When the Level Changes ----------------------------------------- Pulling a switch or standing on a button will usually alter your surroundings in some way, and there are three ways this can happen. The most common one is a door opening or closing. Sometimes an object will move, like the sliding blocks in Tomb of Qualopec or the boat in Natla's Mines. The third way is for the actual structure of the level to change, like when activating the dam in Lost Valley. This is what I'm referring to when I say the level "changes". The game does this by having two different versions of the level stored, which it then alternates between as necessary. This works fine for levels with only one changeable section, but what if the level can change in more than one place? The game can only store two versions of the level, so it can't change each area separately. The answer is: they all change at once! This means doing something at one end of the level can alter another completely unrelated thing at the other end of the level. The reason it isn't obvious that this happens is down to clever design. For a demonstration of how this affects the game, see the section on "How the City of Khamoon Works". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. The Alternative Walkthrough ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- 5.1 Lara's Home ---------------- 5.1.1 Blue Compass ------------------- In Lara's Home, the letters on the compass are blue instead of yellow. This might be something to do with the different colours used for Lara's clothes in this level. 5.1.2 Missing Tutorial Messages -------------------------------- By playing the Tomb Raider CD as a music CD, you'll be able to hear everything Lara says in the tutorial. However, two of the messages on the disc can never actually be heard in the game. These are: Track 44: "Great! If there is a long drop and I don't want to hurt myself jumping off, I can let myself down carefully." Track 46: "Then let go." 5.1.3 Ark of the Covenant -------------------------- Next to Lara's front door is the Ark of the Covenant, the artifact featured in the first Indiana Jones film! * Thanks to Data for pointing this out (and Toby Gard in the Tomb Raider: Anniversary director's commentary for confirming it). 5.1.4 Continue After Exiting Pool ---------------------------------- Soon after getting out of the swimming pool at the end of Lara's Home the level ends. You can stop this happening by getting out on the same side as the entrance and immediately running out of the room. ---------- 5.2 Caves ---------- 5.2.1 Get Stuck in the Wall ---------------------------- Near the start of the level, just after the darts, there is small ledge you have to climb up that Lara automatically looks at. From here, turn round and go to the cave wall directly opposite this ledge. In the back right corner there is a tall, grey section of wall. Stand up against this and jump forward - Lara will get trapped inside the wall and will only be able to turn on the spot and fire her weapons. * Thanks to Joaquim Vale for finding this. 5.2.2 Skip to the Final Room ----------------------------- Go to the wooden gate about a third of the way through the level (in the cave after the very first door) that allows you to see through to the final room. Stand against the wall on the left side of this gate, near the corner. Face at about 45 degrees towards the gate and start jumping on the spot, exactly as if you were doing the corner bug. Keep doing this until Lara passes partly into the wall - you can tell this has happened when the shadows on her suddenly get much darker. Now hold the left sidestep button and Lara will magically glide through the gate! Once on the other side, head for the far end of the room you now find yourself in, where the big door is. You can carry on the level as normal by climbing up the rocks to the left of the door. Instead, though, you can continue this shortcut by using a glitch. On the right side of the big door, above the steep slope where the darts come from, there is a small grey ledge. To get to this you need to jump and collide with the triangular piece of wall just below it, but as far to the right as you can. About a third of the way along seems to work. It's tricky, but with a bit of luck Lara will teleport up onto the ledge, where it is an easy jump over to the room where the wolf attacks you. This time, however, you get to catch him napping in the corner of the room! * Very nice work from Mitjitsu in putting this huge shortcut together. You can see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psbza9I6jag 5.2.3 Bridge Glitch -------------------- Enter the room with two bridges and stand on the rocks under the nearest one. Do a running jump towards the middle of the bridge, and Lara will pass through the bridge and land on top of it. 5.2.4 Ghost Ceiling 1 ---------------------- Just before the first save crystal there is a chasm with a bear in it. If you fall down this you have to open a door that lets you back out into the room with the bridges. The ceiling above the rocks to the right of this door allows you to jump through it. * Credit to Joaquim Vale. 5.2.5 Mayan Calendar --------------------- At the back of the room containing the third secret is a design that you don't see anywhere else in the game. This is actually the Mayan Calendar (you can do a Google image search to compare). * Thanks to Data for noticing this. 5.2.6 Inactive Wolf -------------------- At the very end of this level you have to pull a switch to open the large set of doors. As you approach the room with this switch in it there is a wolf that attacks you. You can avoiding waking this wolf by taking a little bit of evasive action. Just after you jump over the gap at the end of the room opposite the large doors, but before you enter the darker area with the large medipack, stop and look to the left. There is a series of small openings down the length of the room. Jump past the first of these openings and enter the second one, and the wolf in the next room will remain asleep. * Thanks for this one, Joaquim Vale. ----------------------- 5.3 City of Vilcabamba ----------------------- 5.3.1 Real Artifacts --------------------- Like the Mayan Calendar in the first level, City of Vilcabamba contains a few real-life artifacts that you may not be familiar with. Try doing a Google image search for the following (without the quotes) to see where the Tomb Raider team got some of their art ideas from: "aztec turquoise serpent" - the stone snakes beside the pool outside one of the secret rooms. "atlantean warriors" - the large standing statues in various places in this level and Tomb of Qualopec. * Thanks to DeathsoulXIV2 for this info. ---------------- 5.4 Lost Valley ---------------- 5.4.1 Black Screen 1 --------------------- From the start of the level, follow the tunnel out and immediately turn left. Keep following the left wall and you'll come to a corner with a low ceiling. Turn to face the river and use sidestep and walk to get as far into the corner as possible. Now jump straight up and the screen will go completely black. You can still draw your guns and check your inventory, but you're trapped until you reload. This seems to happen when you've done something the game wasn't expecting and as a result it places you outside the boundary of the level. It can happen surprisingly often in the game, as you'll see later, but since you only really need to do it once I suggest you try this one because it's the easiest. * Thanks go to Nox13last for finding this one. 5.4.2 Repeating Waterfall Glitch --------------------------------- Jump into the river and try to swim against the direction of the current. Don't press any directions and Lara will move into a vertical position as she moves towards the waterfall. Keep holding Square as she goes over the edge and Lara will teleport to the roof of the cavern then fall back down to the top of the waterfall. If you keep holding Square the glitch will occur again and again in a loop. * Thanks to SiReNz wAiL for pointing this out. 5.4.3 Ghost Ceiling 2 ---------------------- In the secret area at the very top of the river, one of the ceiling sections allows you to pass through it. * Thanks, Joaquim Vale. 5.4.4 Qualopec Switch Texture ------------------------------ As soon as you enter the grassy, dinosaury section of the level, look up and to the right. At the very top of the level boundary there is a texture used for the switches in the next level. * And again, Joaquim Vale. 5.4.5 Peek at the T-Rex ------------------------ After entering the valley with the dinosaurs, follow the left rock face until you reach a waterfall. Stand near this waterfall and try to look through it - it helps if you keep pressing and releasing the Look button. If you get the angle right you should be able to catch a glimpse of the Tyrannosaurus as he waits for you to come round the corner. 5.4.6 Stand Inside a Bridge Section ------------------------------------ One of the broken bridge sections lying against a rock in the valley allows you to walk through it. 5.4.7 Illegal Slopes 1 and 2 ----------------------------- This level contains two steep slopes that lead directly into a wall. One is on the right side of the valley just after you go under the bridge; the other is to your right as you climb up to the secret on the temple roof. If you try to slide down one of these slopes, Lara will get trapped between the slope and the wall (so you might want to save your game first). Holding Jump while you're trapped like this makes Lara do some funny-looking spasms. Hold Look and the camera will go totally insane. * Thanks to joe042293 for telling me about this. 5.4.8 Pointless Cogs --------------------- When you insert the three cogs into the dam mechanism and pull the lever, the cogs you put in don't actually spin. Looks like all that work to get them was just a waste of time... --------------------- 5.5 Tomb of Qualopec --------------------- 5.5.1 Break the Level ---------------------- At the very beginning of the level, run towards the bend in the passage. When you reach it, you should hear the waterfall from Lost Valley in the background. But wait a minute - didn't you stop the waterfall in order to reach this level? Run back and forth for a bit while listening carefully and you'll notice that the waterfall is triggered by a specific tile: the one on the corner of the very first turn in the passage. To make the glitch work, you must avoid this trigger by jumping slightly through the corner of the tunnel so that you don't pass over the corner tile. If you get it right, you will continue to hear the waterfall as you enter the main hallway. Have a look around and you'll see that the ceiling above you has crumbled away, and the level now behaves as though you have picked up the Scion. You can now run straight up the central passage (avoiding the boulder), pick up the Scion and exit the level! The reason for this strange behaviour is because of the way Lost Valley and Tomb of Qualopec are linked. If it wasn't for that, there would be no reason to have triggers to switch the level between its two states - it would only need to change once, when you pick up the Scion (see "What Happens When the Level Changes"). However, because the level has to be set back to the layout with no waterfall in order for Lara to be able to get out, there need to be hidden triggers to ensure that happens. Of course, it would make far more sense to simply remove the waterfall from Tomb of Qualopec altogether - I'm guessing the reason this didn't happen is because Lost Valley and Tomb of Qualopec were originally one big level and were split up quite late in development (see "Lara's Passport"). * Thanks to MMAN2 for discovering this amazing glitch while attempting a speed run. You can see his 0:59 run at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Szg1EQEHE 5.5.2 Room With Movable Pillars Shortcut ----------------------------------------- In the large room with two pillars that can be moved, you can save a bit of time with some carefully directed jumps. There are a few ways you can do this, but the quickest is as follows. Upon entering the room, leave the first switch and do a running jump to the right so that you land on the closest pillar. Jump up into the alcove and pull the switch to move the other pillar. Now drop down onto the floor, go up the passage leading to the second pillar and do another tightly angled jump onto it. From here it's a simple jump over the spikes. * Thank you to guido37 for suggesting this. 5.5.3 Falling Mummy -------------------- In the Scion chamber, the mummy on the left of the throne watches you as you move, and will fall over if you go near it or shoot it. 5.5.4 The Fourth Piece of the Scion ------------------------------------ Pick up the Scion, leave the tomb and save your game at the save point just before the fight with Larson. Now reload and go back inside. The Scion will be back, allowing you to pick it up again. If you continue through the game until the end of the Sanctuary of the Scion you will have four pieces. Doing this trick also has a slightly strange effect on the falling ceiling tiles in the main hallway: if there were any still left intact before you reloaded they will now just teleport to the ground when activated instead of falling. 5.5.5 The Fifth and Sixth Pieces of the Scion ---------------------------------------------- This trick uses exactly the same method as above - it just requires a little bit more effort. Complete the level up until you pick up the Scion, without using either of the two save points you come across. Normally when you grab the Scion and run back down to the main hallway the doors to the left and right have closed, so you can't go back to either of these two save points. The reason the doors close is because you stand on a pressure pad halfway down the slope with the boulder. It's difficult to describe where this button is because there are no obvious markings, but I've worked out an easy method to get down the slope without hitting it. At the top of the slope is a red strip of floor. Stand exactly on the join between the red and yellow sections of floor. Do a standing jump followed by a series of running jumps all the way to the bottom. Turn left and the door should be open - save then restart at the save crystal. Now go back to pick up the Scion again, but remember to dodge the pressure pad on the way back up! My method works exactly the same way going up: stand on the border between the red and yellow floor at the bottom of the slope, then do a standing jump followed by running jumps up to the top. Grab the Scion and come back down, once again avoiding the button. This time turn right after the slope. The three gates should be open, but for some reason the third gate occasionally decides to close. If this is the case, simply go and pull the switch to re-open it. Go through the gates and save/restart at the save crystal just beyond. Run up the stairs and check out the blocked-off passage if you want, then go back up the slope once more to pick up the Scion. Adding together the real piece, the three glitch pieces you get from the three save crystals in this level, and the other two you pick up during the game, that makes a grand total of six pieces of the Scion. * Thanks to Joaquim Vale for discovering that the doors in the main room don't always close. ----------------------- 5.6 St. Francis' Folly ----------------------- 5.6.1 Keyhole Texture ---------------------- In the first room, go to the last orange pillar on the left and look directly down at it; you should be able to see through its base. There is a keyhole in the ground underneath it. It looks like one of the keyholes at the end of the level, except flat. * Phantom Stranger gets the credit for this discovery. 5.6.2 Skip the Gorilla Room and Pierre --------------------------------------- Shortly after starting this level, you open a door at the far end of the first room. The door closes behind you when you enter, and some gorillas attack. The reason the door closes is because you stand on a button in front of the door - with a careful jump you can avoid this button and not get locked in. Now you just have to pull the switch then jump back over the button to leave. As an added bonus, Pierre will not attack you afterwards because he is triggered by the switch that lets you back out of that room. 5.6.3 First Secret - Guaranteed Method --------------------------------------- This secret is in a small room high up on the right-hand wall as you enter the first room of the level. Once inside, the hardest part is getting the jumps right in order to reach the first ledge. The following method seems a little complicated, but as far as I know it works every time: give it a go if you're finding this secret difficult. Go to the ledge at the entrance to the secret room, then grab on to the edge so that you're facing towards where you start this level. Shimmy left as far as you can, then pull yourself up. Press Circle to roll, then jump to the right. Sidestep twice to the right (don't release R2 between sidesteps), then press Circle to roll again. You're now in the perfect jumping position. Do a backflip, and keep holding both Jump and Walk afterwards. Lara should collide with the back wall, rebound off both slopes, then dive onto the ledge. 5.6.4 Second Secret - Guaranteed Method ---------------------------------------- The second secret in St Francis' Folly is across from a long slope that leads down into some water. This can be difficult to get because if you fail you have to restart the level. Don't worry, though, because there is a 100% successful way to reach it. Get to the top of the slope, turn round and slide down it backwards. Keep holding X so that you grab on at the bottom. Now pull yourself up, but don't press anything, so that you immediately drop back off the slope again. Hold Square as you fall and you'll rebound off the lower slope and land on the secret ledge. * Thanks go to Free Storage for finding this method, which is a big improvement on my previous version. 5.6.5 Wall of Water 1 ---------------------- In the first pool of water you come across, turn round and immediately swim towards the gate before the current takes you too far. The aim is to squeeze through the gap in the top of the gate. There is a technique to this, but the simplest way is probably just to keep swimming against it and moving up and down. Once you're through to the other side, swim towards the passage that leads to the main room - the water suddenly stops leaving a cool liquid wall for you to play with. 5.6.6 Shimmy Glitch 1 ---------------------- Go to any of the platforms in the centre of the gods room, other than the top one. Stand with your back to the edge, facing north. To your left should be a pillar that runs from the ground all the way up to the top platform. Now hop backwards, grab the ledge, and keep shimmying left. You should be able to shimmy into the pillar despite there being nothing to hold on to. Release X and Lara will appear at the very top of the pillar then fall to her death. 5.6.7 Fourth Secret - Cheat Method ----------------------------------- The fourth and final secret in this level is behind a hidden door at the very bottom of the gods room. When you press a button on top of the Atlas door, the hidden door opens for a short period of time. If you press the button but don't manage to get to the secret in time (or you can't be bothered trying), just save your game and reload. The hidden door will now be open, and will stay open for as long as you need to get inside. * Thanks to greybeard for this one. 5.6.8 Falling Block Trick -------------------------- Here's a simple one: go into Thor's room and make the hammer fall. Stand under where the movable block lands and Lara will reappear on top of it instead of being crushed. * Thanks, guido37. -------------- 5.7 Colosseum -------------- 5.7.1 Jump Through the Wall ---------------------------- As soon as the level begins, run directly forward until you reach a cave wall consisting of four sections. Stand in front of either of the two sections on the left, then jump forwards. Lara will pass through the wall and land in the water on the other side. * Credit to Joaquim Vale for finding another dodgy wall. 5.7.2 Illegal Slope 3 ---------------------- Cross the pool of water at the very start of the level and turn left. Near the water, in the rocks beside you, is a steep slope leading directly into a wall. As with illegal slopes 1 and 2, if you try to slide on it Lara will get trapped and you'll have to reload. * Thanks for this one, guido37. 5.7.3 First Room Alternate Route --------------------------------- This is a shortcut, but it's much harder to do than the easy section it replaces and the designers clearly knew about it (they put a secret in it) so I'm calling it an alternate route. After the water at the start of the level, turn right and you'll see a ledge. Climb on it and jump to the right over to where the secret is. Now continue round the top of the rocks until you get to the exit, or continue round the building to get the medipack and laugh at the inactive lion waiting in the far corner. * And again, guido37! 5.7.4 Trap Pierre ------------------ Is Monsieur Du Pont causing you trouble in this level? Get him out of your way by using this simple tactic. Okay, so it's not as simple as shooting him to pieces, but this way you won't take any damage. Before you enter the large central area there is a gate that leads back out towards the start of the level. Pull the switch that opens it, and watch out for the lion that will attack you unless you've already been to that corridor from the other side. Now go and fetch Pierre (standing on the second step from the top will activate him). Run back through the gate you've just opened and complete the first part of the level again, up until you're back on the other side of that gate again. Can you guess what comes next? Pull the switch to close the gate, and if all goes well Pierre should be trapped on the other side and will leave you alone for the rest of the level. Of course, instead of doing the first part of the level again you could just run through the gate, wait for Pierre to catch up, then run back past him to quickly close it. This works fine if you don't mind taking a bit of damage. * Joaquim Vale takes credit for this interesting tactic. 5.7.5 Palace Midas Textures ---------------------------- In the large central area, look up at the top of the wall in any of the corners. You'll see some of the lettering that appears on the Midas statue in the next level. 5.7.6 The Worst Spike Pit Ever ------------------------------- Look for the spike pit in the large central area. If you jump down it you should get splattered - or at least that's what the designers hoped, because if you manage to survive the fall you can skip a chunk of the level. Luckily it is actually very easy to get down that pit alive. You could use either the Safety Drop Bug or the Hole Bug to slip past the spikes and land inside the opening. You could also use the "Survive Any Drop" glitch to teleport into the spikes then walk to safety. A third way is to try and land in the very centre of the spike pit - you'll notice there is a slight gap there. If you're feeling brave just aim carefully and jump, but there is a far easier method: walk to the middle of the edge of the pit that has no rocks, then tap forwards. You should land right in the safe spot. 5.7.7 Same Shortcut, Different Way ----------------------------------- Go into the large central area again and make your way round the wall to the right until some rocks block your path. Stand on the second white ledge from the top and face the platform to the left of this rock wall. Do a running jump (without a grab) as close to the rock wall as you can, and you should make it onto the platform without sliding back down. This shortcut skips almost exactly the same amount of the level as the one above. 5.7.8 Same Shortcut, Yet Another Way ------------------------------------- This method of skipping the rooms under the main arena is harder than the other two (in my opinion), but has the advantage of avoiding fighting the two gorillas on the balcony and looks to be the quickest for people doing speed runs. When you first enter the main area, go round the left side until you reach a dead end. Now do a curved running jump and grab the edge of the royal viewing box that overlooks the arena. One small step back from the wall seems to be a good place to jump from. * Credit to guido37 for this one. ----------------- 5.8 Palace Midas ----------------- 5.8.1 The Unreachable Medipack ------------------------------- In the room with five switches, look at the very top of the white structure to the left as you face the switch platform. There is a large medipack that you cannot reach. You can get it, however, by using the Corner Bug described in section 4. The question now is: did the designers mean to put it there, or was it just a slip of the mouse? And if it's supposed to be there, was it meant to be impossible to get, or did the game makers know about the Corner Bug all along? 5.8.2 Quick Way Onto Switch Platform ------------------------------------- This lets you get up to the five switches without having to work your way round the pillars first. Go to the white structure to the right of the switch platform and climb as far up it as you can. Now face the platform and do a running jump without a grab. 5.8.3 How the Spike Room and the Pillar Room Work -------------------------------------------------- There are four doors that lead off from the main room with the switches. Behind one of these is a room with a pillar in the centre. You normally break this pillar and release some sand by going underneath it and pulling a block. Behind another door is a room with spikes, and platforms that can be raised by pulling a switch. Both of these involve changing the level (see "What Happens When the Level Changes"). The first layout the level can have corresponds to the platforms in the spike room being lowered and the large pillar in the other room being intact. In layout 2, the platforms are raised and the big pillar has broken. The game manages to switch between these two layouts at the right time by using a series of triggers. If you stand on or pass over one of these triggers, it has an effect. Here's where they all are, assuming you are standing at the main entrance to the room: Trigger A: The middle three steps of the staircase leading up the centre of the switch platform. Trigger B: The row of squares starting at the front left corner of the entrance and finishing at the front left corner of the switch platform, including the pillar in the middle. Trigger C: The row of squares immediately to the left of Trigger B, going from the front of the room to the back. Trigger D: The top three steps of the staircase leading up the centre of the switch platform. Trigger E: The row of squares starting at the front right corner of the entrance and finishing at the edge of the switch platform. Trigger F: The row of squares immediately to the right of Trigger E, going from the front of the room to the front right corner of the switch platform, including the pillar in the middle; AND the row of squares immediately to the right of that, going from the front of the room to the back. As you can imagine, finding those took a very long afternoon! Here's what they all do: Triggers A and B: If the switch in the spike room has been pulled, change to layout 1. Trigger C: If the switch in the spike room has been pulled, change to layout 2. Triggers D and E: If the block under the large pillar has been pulled, change to layout 1. Trigger F: If the block under the large pillar has been pulled, change to layout 2. All that sounds incredibly confusing, but if you load up the level and take a minute to look around it actually makes perfect sense. Well, almost - there are a couple of flaws in the design. Firstly, the triggers that make the sand appear and disappear are within view of the room with the sand in it. This means that once you've pulled the block from under the pillar you can sidestep back and forth between Triggers E and F and watch the sand appear and disappear in front of your eyes. Secondly, it's possible to avoid pulling either the switch in the spike room or the block in the pillar room by making a quick detour to touch one of the triggers. Get onto the switch platform and open the door to the room you want to complete. Go to the side of the platform opposite that door, then briefly dangle off the side or jump to one of the pillars and back again. This will activate Trigger C or F, changing the room to layout 2 and saving you a bit of time. By the way, you can avoid walking up the stairs in the pillar room by standing on the pile of sand then doing a backflip and rebounding forward to grab the pillar. * Thanks to matthew_16 for letting me know that the previous version of this glitch (Broken Pillar Glitch) didn't work. 5.8.4 Invisible Creature Barrier --------------------------------- Enter the room with the pillar mentioned above and go through the passage at the far end. Make sure an animal comes in with you. For some reason, there is an invisible wall that blocks the creature from following you through this passage. However, the barrier is removed when you pull the block to break the pillar (or use the glitch to achieve the same effect). 5.8.5 Aqueduct Shortcut ------------------------ Go to the top floor of the large structure with water at the top. At the far end is a cave with water, two crocodiles and a secret. Stand near this cave and look off the edge of the building. You can see the part where you jump from the floor below you over to a small hole in the rock with a medipack, shimmy sideways for a bit then jump back over to the exit of the room. To do the shortcut, simply take a running jump from where you are off the side of the building towards this exit. You should slide off a rock and land without much damage, skipping a few jumps and gorillas in the process. The best part is the two bats sleeping while hanging in mid-air. 5.8.6 Inactive Lion 1 ---------------------- At the beginning of the level, where the pool of water is, there is a ledge running round the top of the room. When you get to this ledge a lion attacks you from the other end, but you can avoid this fight by bypassing the square that triggers it. When you come out of the rock corridor, the ledge goes forward for three squares before turning to the right. If you stand on or jump over the second square the lion attacks, so stop at the first square, turn and grab the edge of the ledge. Shimmy left and pull up onto the third square, then continue through into the next passage, remembering to pet the lion on the way by. * Joaquim Vale found this one. 5.8.7 Walk on Midas's Hand --------------------------- As I'm sure you're well aware, the broken hand from Midas's statue turns Lara to gold if she stands on it. In fact, the designers have thoughtfully placed a save crystal right next to it so you can do it as often as you like! However, it's possible to stand and move around safely on the hand under certain circumstances. Try standing behind the wrist and jumping forwards onto the palm. Keep holding Forward and Lara will run across the surface of the hand then collide with the fingers. As long as you keep holding Forward the game will think Lara is moving and therefore won't turn her to gold - you can tell she's not standing normally because she doesn't appear to be breathing. If you now hold either Sidestep button then release Forward, Lara will be able to sidestep around on the hand. Sidestep over to an edge, start holding a different direction (Walk and Back, for example), then release Sidestep to make Lara move again. You can move around the hand in any way you like as long as she's continuously moving, or trying to move against the edge of the hand. With a bit of practice it's surprising how much Lara can get away with without becoming a statue. * Credit to DeathsoulXIV2 for discovering this. 5.8.8 Inactive Lion 2 ---------------------- Open the door that leads to the final room where you place the gold bars. A lion normally attacks you when you enter, because the very first square on the other side of the door activates the lion when you stand on or jump over it. By doing a carefully positioned jump as close to the corner as possible you can bypass this square and catch the lion napping. ---------------- 5.9 The Cistern ---------------- 5.9.1 Inactive Water Rats -------------------------- I think the designers were a bit careless here. Simply run into the room with the switch that changes the water level and fall straight down the left hole. There should be two motionless (and extremely scary looking) rats on the surface of the water. 5.9.2 Shimmy Glitch 2 ---------------------- Go through the first rusty key door into the room containing two gorillas and Pierre. At the far end of this room are two ledges, one of which has Magnum clips on it. Jump onto either of these ledges (it's easiest to do this using the Hole Bug), then grab the edge and shimmy left. The same thing will happen as with "Shimmy Glitch 1". * I don't know how you found this, DSkillz, but thanks for telling me about it! 5.9.3 Room With Two Crocodiles Shortcut ---------------------------------------- Go through to the room after the one mentioned above. You'll find yourself at the top of a series of slopes leading down to a room with two crocodiles, a save point and some ledges round the walls. After sliding down the first short slope, do a running jump to the right and you'll end up on the last ledge before the exit. 5.9.4 Get Trapped in the Gold Key Room --------------------------------------- In the second rusty key door to the left when you enter the main room there is a spike pit. To get past the spikes you should raise the water level so that you can swim over them, but it's possible to get down when the water is low. Just shimmy all the way to either side then drop. You can pick up the gold key, but you're now trapped because the exit door refuses to open. * Thank you, Stunning SteveAustin. --------------------- 5.10 Tomb of Tihocan --------------------- 5.10.1 Jump in Mid-air ----------------------- At the beginning of this level, Lara immediately falls down into some water. Keep holding the Jump button just as the level starts and Lara will jump straight up in the air before falling. * Another glitch courtesy of joe042293. 5.10.2 Strange Camera ---------------------- When the level starts, go and pull the lever to lower the water then go back to the beginning again. You'll be treated to a weird camera position that shows mostly blackness. * Thanks to guido37. 5.10.3 The Floating Block Prison --------------------------------- In the second room there is a block that rises up and down with the water level. If you use the Movable Block Bug to get into the passage behind it you'll see that the designers haven't bothered assigning a texture to the side of the block now facing you, because you're never supposed to see it - you can see back out into a weird, glitchy version of the room you just came from instead. Also, for some reason, the Movable Block Bug only works one way here, so you're now trapped. * Thanks again, guido37. 5.10.4 Avoid Reversing the Current ----------------------------------- Make your way to the top of the second room, where there is a switch to raise the water level so that you can stand on a floating block. Don't pull it: instead, stand at the very edge of the passage with the switch at the end, with your back to the room. Sidestep into the left corner of this passage and turn at a slight angle. Now do the Safety Drop Bug, by tapping backwards then holding X, but not grabbing anything. It's more difficult than the Safety Drop Bug normally is because it's at an angle, but you should be able to miss the ledge below you and land inside the exit. Continue through to the part where there is normally a strong current pushing against you. However, because the current direction is connected to the water height, it will now be moving with you and you won't have to pull the lever. * Thanks to guido37 for suggesting a shortcut might be possible here. 5.10.5 Wall of Water 2 ----------------------- This is one of my favourite glitches because it was the result of planning, rather than just an accident. It has exactly the same effect as in St Francis' Folly, but the way to get it is much more difficult. I recommend you read the section on "What Happens When the Level Changes" before carrying on. Play through the Tomb of Tihocan up until the room containing a swinging blade and a save crystal, but don't save yet. Go through the right passage (with Pierre) and follow it down to the room with the crocodile - there will be no water. Step on all three floor tiles to open the secret door. The reason we opened that door is because the level's designers probably didn't bother adding water to the other side of it. Therefore, if we can raise the water level in this room the water should stop abruptly where the door used to be. At this point I suggest you have a look around to remind yourself where the exit to this room is (you'd normally be able to reach it with the water level up). Go back up the stairs and save your game, then go through the left passage this time. Since we want to bring the water level up, the obvious thing to do now would be to shimmy over and pull the switch. However, the designers have thought of that! If you try doing that you'll hear the secret door closing before you can even get to the switch. We'll have to try something else. Stand at the edge, quite near to the left side of the opening, and turn as far right as possible without actually facing the wall. Now jump off the edge, turn in mid-air and land inside the exit. This jump is tricky, which is why it's best to save just before trying it. When you finally manage it, don't pause for celebrations because a rat will attack you and it might push you off (I speak from experience). With that done, carry on through to the next room, kill the lion, and continue to the pool with the floating blocks. This is where the "Changing the Level" bit comes in. When the water level is up, as it normally would be at this point, the blocks are submerged. With the water down, the blocks should have risen - but they haven't. This is because, once again, the designers are one step ahead of us. They've added a trigger that makes the blocks submerge at this point, so that if somebody actually managed to come through here with the water level down they wouldn't be able to take a shortcut. Never mind though, because by denying us a shortcut the designers have revealed a glitch instead. Now that the blocks are down, the water level back in the previous room must have risen. Go back through and you'll see that this is the case. Swim over to the secret door and you'll receive the reward for all your hard work: a wall of water. 5.10.6 Watch the Floating Blocks Appear ---------------------------------------- Somewhere in the middle of this level you are required to put a gold key in a keyhole, which makes some blocks float up to the surface allowing you to cross a pool. Normally you wouldn't be able to see this happen, but by making use of the "Delayed Keyhole" glitch you can watch the blocks teleport to the surface. 5.10.7 Overlapping Rooms ------------------------- This is an interesting one. Go to the room with several doors round the edge and a block that you can move onto different tiles to open them. We're interested in the room with the boulders and the one next door to it. If you're standing at the entrance to the main room, these are the two doors on the left-hand wall. The buttons to open them are the one nearest you and the one to the left of that. Once you've opened these rooms and activated the boulders, take a second to think about where the rooms are in relation to each other. The doors to these rooms are four squares apart, and the one on the right uses one of those squares, so even if the dividing wall was paper-thin, the boulder room must be three squares long. However, this room is actually five squares long - it extends well inside the other room! You can even see the door to the other room through the wall. The reason this is acceptable and doesn't cause hideous glitches is due to the way the game's engine works. Put simply, the game doesn't need to waste time drawing a room that the player can't even see any part of, so rooms are only visible when you're looking at them. You can see what I mean with the following test. From inside the boulder room, look at the door to the small boring room protruding through the wall. Move around and you'll see it appears and disappears. This isn't a simple graphical glitch - the door really is vanishing, along with the entire room outside with the block in it and the door to this room. Experiment with the camera and you'll find that the door to the other room is only visible if you're looking at the entrance to this room too (or nearly looking at it). The only way having two rooms on top of each other would cause a mess would be if you could somehow see inside both rooms at once, which isn't possible. This also explains the extremely common glitch of doors disappearing as you walk past them. Look closely and you'll notice this only happens in one direction. That's because the door is considered part of one room but not the other, so if you're leaving the room that the door belongs to, the game decides it doesn't need to draw the room any more and so anything attached to the room disappears too. Next time a door beside you vanishes, just remember the entire room behind you has vanished too! * A round of applause, please, for guido37's observation skills! 5.10.8 Make the Level Impossible --------------------------------- Kill Pierre at the end of the level, then go and save your game without picking up any of the items he drops. When you reload they will be gone, and without the gold key you're stuck. --------------------- 5.11 City of Khamoon --------------------- 5.11.1 How the City of Khamoon Works ------------------------------------- Before reading this, check out "What Happens When the Level Changes". What follows is a kind of walkthrough of the City of Khamoon, to try and show you what I'm talking about with this level changing stuff. If you're interested in all the things the designers get up to without you noticing then try playing through it - you don't even need to do any glitches or shortcuts. In this level there are four changeable sections: a gold platform that comes out of the wall in the room with water at the bottom, a staircase that changes to a slope when you step on it, a room with lots of panthers that can be made dark or light, and a big pile of sand that falls through to a room below. When the level starts, each of these is in the same position as when you first come across it. Okay, let's begin - complete the first part of the level as normal, up until the room with the statues along both walls. In the corridor after this room, look through the little window just to check that the sand in the final room is in the top position. Now keep going until the room with water at the bottom. Pull the switch to make the gold platform appear, then move the block and go through to the bridge with the mummy on it. From here you can see the final room again through the orange partition. Now that you've changed one part of the level all the others changed too, so this time the sand appears to have fallen through to the lower room despite the trapdoors still being shut. Go back through, carry on up to the very top of the room and open the trapdoors around the cat statue. Make your way down to the area you just opened, but don't drop down. From here you should be able to see the stairs that change to a slope when you step on them. Because the gold platform and the sand are in their secondary positions you'd expect the steps to be too, but they aren't. Somewhere on the way we must have activated a trigger to set the level back to its original position. To check this, go over to the metal fence (watch out for the boulder) and look for the gold platform that you extended earlier - it's gone back into the wall. If you go back through to that room, however, the platform comes back out again. Okay, on to the next part. Drop down the pit you opened, open the trapdoor to make the next room light, and go through to the final section with the sand - it's in the upper room as it should be. Pull the switch to make the sand fall through to the lower room. Instead of going back through, drop back down to the statues room below you then make your way back to the large cavern. Now that the sand has fallen down, the triggers that we encountered in this room earlier have gone. Go over to the pit with the "surprise steps" at the bottom (again, don't drop down yet), and you'll see they're in the sloping position this time. There's just one more thing to check now: the changeable light in the room with lots of panthers. Go to the room with water at the bottom and pull the switch to make the gold platform retract into the wall. Now go over and look down the small trapdoor into the panther room - it's gone completely dark, even though the trapdoor is open. Finally, drop down into the pit with the cat statue that leads to the dark room. Walk slowly towards the room, watching the brightness in it carefully. As you reach a certain point in the corridor, the room will light up. This must mean the trick steps behind you have also changed to the sloping position, but unfortunately the level has been designed so that you can't quite see the change. You can still make out something, though: if you turn round and walk slowly back through to the area containing the steps you should be able to see the wall nearby change brightness slightly. That's the end of that slightly strange walkthrough of the City of Khamoon - I hope it was of interest if, like me, you have completed that level numerous times but haven't noticed all the weird things happening around you! 5.11.2 "Saphire" Key --------------------- This is a spelling mistake - the word is "sapphire". 5.11.3 Glitchy Movable Block ----------------------------- It's possible to have a bit of fun with the movable block that you can pull out from under the sphinx in this level. Keep pulling it as far as you can and you'll notice that Lara will be able to carry on pulling even when she's on a slope, which she shouldn't normally be able to do. Pull the block once more (or go round the other side and push if you released X), and the block will end up on a slope so that one side is raised off the ground. Climb on the block and move around on it and you'll see that the top of the block actually behaves like the slope underneath. Try to push or pull the block again and it will sink into the slope and get stuck. Lara will either continue to pull at the air or push through the block and then reappear on top. * Thanks very much for this one, Joaquim Vale. 5.11.4 Skip the Statues Room ----------------------------- In the first large cavern with the sphinx, make your way over to the corner with the obelisk then climb up to the fence separating this area from the next. Use the fence bug here to pass through to the next cavern. 5.11.5 Black Screen 2 ---------------------- Go to the room with a pool of water and a cat statue surrounded by trapdoors. At the wall furthest from the entrance is a statue of a person. Try to squeeze between this statue and the wall a few times and you'll eventually go to a black screen. * Another glitch by guido37. 5.11.6 Skip to the End of the Level ------------------------------------ While working your way up the room with water at the bottom, there is a block you must push out of the way which lets you get onto a bridge with a switch on it. A mummy attacks you at this point, but leave it alive. Go to the opposite corner, where there is an orange partition covering an opening onto another room. If you're lucky the mummy will push you straight through to the other side. Otherwise, stand with your back to the partition and keep holding Walk and Back. If the mummy hits you the right way you should pass through to the last room of the level. 5.11.7 Ghost Trapdoor 1 ------------------------ After doing the shortcut described above, go over to the trapdoor, which will still be closed even though the sand has fallen through. This trapdoor isn't designed to be walked on, so you can fall through it as if it isn't there. * Thanks for noticing this, guido37. 5.11.8 Ghost Trapdoor 2 ------------------------ Back in the room with the water at the bottom, there is a gold trapdoor at the top that you must open by pulling the switch on the bridge. This isn't necessary, though, because you can actually climb through this trapdoor even when it's closed (and fall back through it again, if you're not careful!) * Nice find, toastmaster. 5.11.9 Easy Secret ------------------- After climbing through the trapdoor mentioned above, you find yourself on a high balcony overlooking an earlier area. I think the route you're supposed to take is to work your way around the edge of this room to the left, which eventually takes you to the roof of the blue structure. From here, you can jump over to the secret directly below the balcony, then down onto the ground. However, it's far quicker and easier to simply drop down to the secret from the balcony and skip this route altogether. Alternatively, if you don't want to lose so much health from the drop, you can hang onto the edge of the balcony to register the secret then pull back up and find another way down. * Thanks for pointing this out too, toastmaster. ------------------------ 5.12 Obelisk of Khamoon ------------------------ 5.12.1 Return to City of Khamoon ... ------------------------------------- As soon as the level begins, turn left and use the Fence Bug to get back through to the previous level. This room is actually slightly different now: for instance, the fence you just came through was only one square wide before (which is why you can't do this in the City of Khamoon). Also notice the two sets of Magnum clips showing through the wall behind the statues, in a similar way to the "See Items Through Ledges" glitch. These are from the room next door, which is where you get out of the water once you swim under the obelisk. By using the Corner Bug you can get up to the upper level of this room and pull the switch, but it doesn't do anything and the exit is blocked by a black wall. You can leave the room through the lower exit and see some more of the City of Khamoon before the level ends in another black wall. * Thanks to guido37 for pointing out where you could pick up the Magnum clips mentioned above. I hadn't thought of that because I had never noticed that ledge or those clips before! (It seems so obvious now...) Isn't it great when you learn something new in an old game? 5.12.2 ... Then Skip to the End of Obelisk of Khamoon ... ---------------------------------------------------------- Following on from above, you can now use the Fence Bug again to fall down into the sphinx cavern. It's trickier to do this time because in order to be on a flat surface you have to stand in the narrow corridor, which means it's difficult to line yourself up properly. Once you've managed this there's not much you can do because you need the four plaques to finish the level. If you had picked them up beforehand you could now exit the level as normal, but it's not much of a shortcut. Another thing to try is to bring the sapphire key through with you, which you can then use on the door under the sphinx. 5.12.3 ... Then Get Trapped in Darkness ---------------------------------------- To finish this triple glitch combo, go through the opening beside the sphinx that you'd normally come out of at the end of this level. Make your way back through the next two rooms, passing two sleeping mummies, until you get to the water. You might want to save your game here. Jump into the water and swim back towards the bottom of the obelisk. Shortly before you'd expect to see the locked door, the screen will suddenly go black. Except from occasional flickering images of Lara swimming in darkness, nothing will happen until Lara eventually drowns. 5.12.4 Skip the Brown Room --------------------------- The room I'm talking about is the large brown brick room that you have to work your way round the walls of in order to lower one of the bridges. The exit to the room is directly below the entrance. This means you can use the Safety Drop Bug to fall straight in, avoiding all that tedious shimmying. To get back out again without touching the floor (you'll be attacked by two mummies if you do), do a running jump over to the ledge that you'd climb on to get back out if you were on the floor. Alternatively, use the Fence Bug to drop back through into the main area. 5.12.5 Skip the Blue Room -------------------------- Once you've lowered the first bridge, stand on it then do a running jump towards one of the raised bridges. Turn slightly in mid-air so that you land behind it. Alternatively, do a standing jump and grab the ledge, then pull yourself up through the bridge. Now go through the opening opposite the first bridge (it doesn't matter whether you pull the nearby switch or not) - you have successfully skipped half of the room with the stairs. Continue upwards as normal and lower the bridge when you get to the top. You can then immediately go through the door to the top of the blue room and activate that bridge too. ---------------------------- 5.13 Sanctuary of the Scion ---------------------------- 5.13.1 Dodgy Collisions ------------------------ Any object that isn't made up of regular blocks is likely to make Lara behave strangely when she gets near to it. I'm not going to list every single one, so instead I'll only include the worst offenders: the faces of the two submerged statues in the second half of this level. Standing on either head and jumping off the front will, depending on the position and type of jump, make Lara either teleport back to where she started or collide with an invisible wall in mid-air. You can also hop backwards and grab the ledge to make Lara dangle through the statue, and when you let go she teleports up to the ledge you just left. * Thanks, everybody who suggested variations of this glitch. 5.13.2 Well-Hidden Medipack ---------------------------- In the large cave with two submerged statues, the statue on the right as you face them has a large medipack embedded in its right ear. I'm not sure whether it's deliberate or not, but it's very easy to miss so I thought I'd mention it. You can't get it when it's under water, but after lowering the water level you can jump over to it and pick it up by standing as close to it as possible. * Credit to joe042293 for pointing this out (and to the others who also mentioned it). 5.13.3 Larson Doesn't Attack ----------------------------- Climb into the opening that leads to the final room of the level. Don't drop into the room just yet, though. Instead, walk to the very corner of the square you're standing on, and turn as far as you can towards the wall without actually facing it. Now do a standing forward jump into the room. If this works you'll hear Larson tell you he's going to shoot you to hell, but he'll be standing still just round the next corner. ------------------- 5.14 Natla's Mines ------------------- 5.14.1 Massive Shortcut Part 1 ------------------------------- In the very first cavern, there is an alcove containing some crates that you normally can't reach until you move the boat closer to it. It is possible to get to this area as soon as the level starts, however. Climb out of the water and stand with the alcove on your left. Then do a sideways jump, land on the slope, slide backwards and grab the edge. Now shimmy left and climb up once the slope isn't too steep. The switch inside moves a drilling machine so that you can go through to the cavern where the first of Natla's henchmen is. If you've completed the game before and already have all the guns (or you've done the All Guns cheat), kill him and carry on as normal. If you don't have any guns, but you have a reasonable number of medipacks, just ignore him and carry on anyway. On the other hand, you can skip even more of the level by continuing with ... 5.14.2 Massive Shortcut Part 2 ------------------------------- Enter the large cavern with Natla's first henchman and kill him if you can. Go over to the left-hand edge of the lava pit. You should be able to see the rocky platform with a switch on it that activates the TNT. Now all you have to do is do a running jump and grab the edge of this platform. You can then pull the switch to blow up the TNT crate (it'll stay intact, though) and continue the level. Now for the bad news: this jump is extremely tricky! It's made even harder by the fact that if you did "Massive Shortcut Part 1" you will have had no save points so far. If you're trying this for the first time, I suggest you do the level as normal, kill the guy with the Magnums, then go back and use the save crystal by the waterfall. I found the best place to stand when trying this was about five or six sidesteps left from where the cliff juts out slightly. Face more to the right than usual to allow yourself space to turn in mid-air so that the angle isn't too narrow. If you attempt this jump and fail, but you want to carry on anyway, just keep holding X. Lara will grab some sloping rocks at the bottom - now just drop and grab the narrow slit then shimmy to the right. 5.14.3 Missing Sound Effect ---------------------------- When pulling a movable block there are normally four "dragging" noises, but on this level there is no fourth sound effect when pulling any crates except the metal "Natla" ones. 5.14.4 Black Screen 3 ---------------------- Make your way to the cabin surrounded by barriers and push the nearby crate as close as you can to it. Now do a running jump from the crate, along the short edge of the cabin, landing at the cave wall between the cabin and the barriers. The screen will immediately go black, as with the previous glitches of this type. * Guido37 gets the credit for this one. 5.14.5 Squeeze Past Boulders ----------------------------- Next to the area with the suspended cabin is a room where you have to get to the other side before the exit is blocked by a boulder. If you don't make it in time you have to leave the room and try again. There is a similar situation with the second secret - if you don't push a crate out of the way quickly enough a boulder blocks the way in. If you fail in either of these situations you avoid repeating a section by simply jumping at the gap between the wall and the boulder until Lara squeezes through. * Thanks to greybeard for pointing this out. 5.14.6 Re-open the Boulder Room Gate ------------------------------------- The room I'm referring to is the one next to the area with the suspended cabin. When you enter, the gate closes behind you, so once you've got the fuse you have to get out by a slightly longer way. However, if you save just after picking up the fuse then restart, the gate will be open and you can just go straight back out. Saving and reloading probably takes longer than just taking the usual route, so it's not much of a shortcut, but it's worth remembering if you happen to restart from that point. 5.14.7 Rubbish Shortcut ------------------------ It's difficult to do and it only skips a tiny portion of the level, but it's still a shortcut! The one advantage it does have is the save point right next to it. Go to the large room where you meet Natla's first henchman and drop down to the save crystal. Look over to the other side of the lava - you should be able to see a slope that leads down to the right and onto a safe bit of land. The aim is to do a running jump and land on this slope, but the rocks directly above it make this difficult to do. In fact, I've never actually managed the shortcut this way. Instead, if you grab the rock as near to this slope as possible you should be able to shimmy to the right slightly. Now when you pull up you should slide onto the land instead of backwards into the lava. 5.14.8 Lara's Spare Pistols ---------------------------- Make sure you don't have All Guns/Infinite Ammo activated, so that you have no weapons as normal. Complete the first part of the level without picking up the Pistols, then go to the second secret (the one where you have to push the block away before the boulder reaches you). Pick up the Shotgun and waste all the ammo in it - when Lara runs out of bullets she'll automatically put it away and draw the Pistols. You can now use this pair of Pistols normally, despite them not appearing in your inventory. Alternatively, do the All Guns Cheat when you start the level and waste all the ammo in any of the three guns (Uzis are quickest). 5.14.9 Cabin Glitch -------------------- Here's another good one, once again caused by the strange way that certain things are linked. In the case of Natla's Mines, it's the suspended cabin, the conveyor belt, the boat, and the rocks that the TNT blows up that are all connected. Complete this level up until you pull the TNT lever, without having inserted all the fuses to make the cabin fall. It's more interesting if you leave both the conveyor belt and the boat as they are when you start the level, but it's not essential. After blowing up the TNT, jump back down onto the area with the cowboy on it and make your way back up to the suspended cabin. Continue through to the room with the conveyor belt. The belt is now moving and the fuse has disappeared. If you want, you can pull the switch that activates the belt and the fuse will appear. Now go back through to where the cabin is and you'll see that a second cabin has appeared on the ground below the first. This cabin doesn't contain the pistols, but if you go and put all three fuses into the crane they will magically appear. If you already pulled the switch to make the boat move then skip this paragraph. Otherwise, go back through to where the waterfall is and look down at the boat - it seems to have drifted over to the left even though you haven't pulled the lever to make it do that yet. Now run back and pull the lever. The camera will show the boat moving over to the left, even though it was already there. When you return to the main room the mysterious second cabin will have vanished again. You can make the second cabin reappear simply by going back to the conveyor belt (actually, halfway along the passage is enough). Go out to the cave with the boat to make it disappear again. The fun's not over yet. Make the second cabin appear, then put a fuse in the crane. It doesn't do anything, but its effect is "stored". Once the second cabin has gone, just stand in front of the fuse holder to make the suspended cabin drop as normal. If you try to activate the third fuse in this way while the cabin is still moving from the second fuse it won't register, but the pistols will still appear. One final thing to try. Insert a fuse while the second cabin is there, then save and restart from the save crystal nearby. When the game reloads there will be nothing in the fuse holder, but when you try to insert another fuse Lara will say "no". Go down to the cabin on the ground - even if that wasn't the third fuse, the pistols will have appeared! * I've had a few people tell me this was possible, but credit goes to matthew_ 16 for working out the correct method. 5.14.10 Skip Some of the Final Section -------------------------------------- Near the end of the level, at the part where there are lots of movable blocks inside an orangey-brown structure, you can save yourself a lot of pushing and pulling by using the Movable Block Bug whenever possible. 5.14.11 Beat the Annoying Door ------------------------------- In the final part of the level where you're inside some kind of brown structure there is a corridor with a gold door at the end. This door opens when you're at the opposite end of the corridor to reveal what looks like the way out, but if you try to get through it the door always closes before you get to it. You have to just ignore it and find a different way. Until now, that is! After you've pushed the block to reveal the corridor, turn left to face the door. The square immediately in front of you opens the door, and every other square closes it. Once you've learned where the two different buttons are, stand near the front of the "open" one on the left-hand side and wait until the door is fully open. Jump forward then immediately back again. The door is now closing, but you're standing on the "open" button. Timing is important for the next bit. All you have to do is a forward jump, then break into a series of running jumps. However, you have to jump forward at the right time so that you leave the "open" button just as the door closes. That way you are at full speed and have the time it takes for the door to fully open then fully close again to get to the other side. If you jump too early, the door will close but won't start opening again because you're not on the "open" button. If you jump too late, you won't make it through before the door closes for the second time. Once you've managed that, it's time for your reward! Go over to the pyramid doors and you'll see that you've caught Natla's henchman napping. Admire his scary eyes and his weird orange bits (I think they're meant to be gloves and a balaclava). How come his Shotgun is twice the size of Lara's? -------------- 5.15 Atlantis -------------- 5.15.1 Disappearing Texture ---------------------------- As soon as the level starts, run forward and look up at the top of the left- hand wall a few squares in front of you. There is a texture there that doesn't fit with its surroundings. There's nothing special about that, but watch closely as the lights turn on, and you'll see that it disappears. Obviously, (as I'm sure you know by now!), the room with the lights on is considered a different room to the one where they are off. Whoever was doing the textures fixed the out-of-place one in the light room but forgot to do it for the dark room. 5.15.2 Invisible Wall 1 and Shortcut ------------------------------------- After getting past the room with water on one side and a large brown slope on the other, you'd normally go through to a room with a raised path in the middle. Instead, you can do a running jump from just before the door, over the water to the opposite side. From here, try turning left and walking into the closed door - an invisible wall will stop you before you can reach it. Doing this jump is also a shortcut, because if you now turn right and continue as normal the door will open automatically when you release the lava in the next room. 5.15.3 Avoid Releasing the Lava -------------------------------- Enter the room with a raised path in the middle that was described above. Normally you'd have to pull the switch and then go back to the previous room to release some lava and move this path closer to the exit. You can, however, make the jump from the path to the exit without having to release the lava. It's tricky to do at first, but it shouldn't take more than a few attempts to get the hang of. 5.15.4 Skip the Boulder Room ----------------------------- After the water section you'll come to a room with a boulder that rolls down and blocks the exit. You're then supposed to push a block so that the boulder doesn't roll down the next time. However, you can stop the boulder from even moving the first time. At the entrance, face to the right and jump forward as close to the wall as possible. If you get it just right, you'll bypass the tile in front of the door that makes the boulder roll. If it didn't work, don't worry. Stand at the far wall, face the gap between the boulder and the exit and jump at it. With a bit of trial and error you should be able to get past the boulder quite easily. 5.15.5 Inactive Flying Mutant 1 -------------------------------- After the boulder room mentioned above, you will return to the huge central shaft. Standing on the ledge that juts out will activate a flying Atlantean above you, just as with all the other ledges below. However, with this one you can avoid the ledge by jumping as close to the wall as possible. If you get it right, your winged friend will be waiting for you the next time you enter the central shaft. 5.15.6 Inactive Flying Mutant 2 -------------------------------- Make your way to the room with lava at the bottom, a jagged white ridge across the middle and some metal jaws at the far end. Shortly after entering this room you are usually attacked by a winged Atlantean, but with some careful jumps you can avoid activating it. Don't go to the right, because the square at the far right of the platform you're on wakes it up. Jump onto the rocky ledge to the left. The square at the far end of this ledge also activates the winged mutant, so in order to reach the next ledge you'll have to stand further back than usual when jumping. Make sure you completely bypass this square - simply jumping over it isn't good enough. Once you've done this you can jump over to the white ridge and look up at the mutant without it attacking you. 5.15.7 Skip Half of the White Ridge Room ----------------------------------------- This shortcut starts from exactly the point that the previous glitch left off: in the middle of the white jagged ridge running across the pit of lava. You'll currently be under fire from two mutants at the room's exit, but try to ignore them. Face the red sloping part of the white ridge that is nearest to the exit. Now do a running jump towards the very bottom of this slope, rebound to the left and grab the opening. Pull yourself up and get ready to fight (or run away from) the two mutants. 5.15.8 Invisible Wall 2 ------------------------ This is the same as the previous invisible wall, but even weirder. Go into the room with a pit of lava and various pillars that can be raised or lowered to make a path to the other side. The door will close behind you as enter. Turn round and try to leave - an invisible wall will block you from even getting to the door. If you try to leave the room quickly before the door closes the invisible wall will materialise on top of you. The screen will go black and you'll be stuck. 5.15.9 Atlantean Lara Glitch ----------------------------- This is one of the few glitches listed in this FAQ that you don't want to happen! Sometimes when you first slide down into the room with Lara's freaky double it is lying dead on the floor, making it impossible to continue. You might even see it fall off a ledge and die while you're in the room. I've heard that it's possible to remedy this by jumping back out the entrance and sliding in again, but this has never worked for me. Luckily there's a save point just before this room, and as far as I know reloading the game fixes the problem. If the copycat Lara is dead (either because of the glitch or by dropping it into the lava), try drawing your weapons: it will still be able to draw its guns and fire them. 5.15.10 Hidden Door -------------------- At the very end of the level, if you jump down onto the platform where the boss battle takes place a door will open up to allow you back up again. This passage is still there in the next level, but the bottom door has been blocked off and the top door is gone. 5.15.11 Spot the Difference ---------------------------- At the end of the level, notice that you can see through the door below the giant yellow egg. In the cutscene that follows, the door is missing completely, and then when the next level begins this door is solid. Also, the small gold box above the Scion that creates the lightning only appears in the next level. ----------------------- 5.16 The Great Pyramid ----------------------- 5.16.1 The Scion Pedestal -------------------------- Begin the level and kill the huge mutant. Now look up at the pedestal that holds the Scion: it isn't turning or making a noise. The reason for this is because in this level the Scion and the platform that holds it have been assigned as an enemy. This allows Lara to shoot the Scion - you can tell it's a "creature" because it bleeds, and adds one to your kill count. Like every other enemy in the game, it must be activated before it can move and Lara can shoot at it. You can hear this happening as you walk up the first slope with a boulder on it. The designers didn't make the Scion pedestal activate as soon as the level begins because if it did you'd be able to shoot it from the platform below - try jumping back down before shooting it and you'll see that it's in range. So what? Well, now that you've destroyed the Scion and are standing on the lower platform, there's something else you can try. Work your way back up to the Scion pedestal again. When you get there, you'll find that it's causing much larger explosions than usual. In fact, if you look carefully you'll notice that these explosions are the same ones that are made for the few seconds immediately after you shoot the Scion. I'm not entirely sure why this happens, but I'd guess it's to do with activating the Scion as I just mentioned. Completing the first section of the level again seems to fool the game into re-activating the Scion, but since you've already destroyed it there's a bit of confusion and this glitch is the result. 5.16.2 Final Secret Glitch --------------------------- The third and final secret in this level is the one past the swinging blade above the long drop into water. If you've tried to collect all the secrets in the game you'll have been disappointed, because this one won't have registered. This happens because whoever designed the level accidentally assigned it as secret number 2, instead of number 3. Since The Great Pyramid already contains a secret number 2, the game thinks you're trying to collect the same secret twice. The third secret will therefore only register if you don't get the second secret. There is a cheat way to get around this, however: check out "The Load Game Bug". I've never bothered to get all the secrets in the game using this method, but I highly doubt that anything special will happen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Historical Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.1 Thor --------- Thor is probably the best known of all the ancient characters depicted in the game. He was the god of thunder, and would create it with his huge hammer. He's also where Thursday gets its name from ("Thor's Day"). Although St Francis' Folly is meant to be in Greece, Thor is actually a Norse god. The Greeks would have known him as Jupiter. 6.2 Atlas ---------- In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan - a race of giants. When the Titans were defeated in a war against the Olympic gods, Atlas was condemned to hold the heavens on his shoulders for all eternity. He is usually depicted as holding a globe (which is why the name "atlas" is used for a book of maps), so presumably that's what the boulder in the Atlas room is meant to represent. 6.3 Neptune ------------ Neptune, in Roman religion and mythology, was the god of the sea: hence the rather watery theme of his room. In Greece he would more likely have been known as Poseidon. 6.4 Damocles ------------- Unlike the other three mythical figures represented in St Francis' Folly, Damocles was not a god but a servant of the tyrant Dionysius. He praised his master's power and wealth so often that Dionysius gave a banquet and had a sword suspended above the head of Damocles by a single hair. The idea of this was to show the precariousness of rank and power, and is where the phrase "the sword of Damocles" comes from. In Tomb Raider, the saying is taken slightly more literally! 6.5 Midas ---------- In Greek folklore, Midas was the king of Phrygia. Because of his hospitality towards the satyr Silenius, he was granted one wish by Dionysus, the god of fertility. Midas asked that everything he touched turned to gold. Of course, he begged for the gift to be removed as soon as he realised that he couldn't eat or drink. Luckily for Lara, the statue in Midas's palace still has this ability. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Challenges ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've completed the game and found all the secrets, but you're looking for an excuse to play it again, here are some challenges you can try. There are only three so far, so if you can think of one then I'd love to hear it. In all of these challenges you may not use any glitches, shortcuts, cheats, etc. 7.1 No Medipacks ----------------- Complete the game without using medipacks. It's not as hard as it sounds if you're careful - always reload if you take too much damage, rather than trying to struggle on. To make it a bit harder, try collecting every medipack as you go so that you have the maximum when you finish. 7.2 Pistols Only, No Medipacks ------------------------------- Very similar to the above challenge, but I've included it because these are the rules for submitting a speed run, so they're quite often used. With this challenge it's even more important to keep your distance from enemies by finding a safe ledge to shoot them from or avoiding them entirely. 7.3 No Guns ------------ This one's a bit harder. You have to complete the game without shooting anything, except when absolutely necessary. You can't avoid killing the following: Larson (Tomb of Qualopec) Pierre (end of Tomb of Tihocan) The giant mutant (The Great Pyramid) The Scion (The Great Pyramid) Some levels are just a case of running as quickly as possible (The City of Vilcabamba is particularly annoying). However, some require a little more thought, such as St Francis' Folly. Here's a quick hint to avoid frustration: you'll need to set aside the equivalent of around six small medipacks for the mutants at the end of Sanctuary of the Scion. That part was a "Game Over" for me on my first try at this! On my second try I finished the game with 13 of each type of medipack. For an added challenge, or if you can't be bothered completing the whole game in this way, try the levels individually. Start with no medipacks each time, and only use ones you pick up in the level. Not all levels are possible like this, but most can be done. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Stella's Tomb Raider Site (www.tombraiders.net), for some helpful glitch explanations. I've tried to expand on the descriptions there as much as possible, but if you have difficulty getting the first five bugs in section 4 to work then that site is well worth a visit. It's also got glitches for the later games. * Phantom Stranger, SiReNz wAiL, joe042293, DSkillz, Joaquim Vale, greybeard, matthew_16, Stunning SteveAustin, Data, Nox13last, guido37, MMAN2, DeathsoulXIV2, toastmaster, Mitjitsu and Free Storage for their input. I'd also like to thank everybody else who has suggested something which, unfortunately, I already knew or decided not to include. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. The End ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for reading! I hope there was something in this FAQ that made you want to play this game again, whether it's to try out some glitches, to search for some more, or simply to remind yourself what a classic it is. If you know of anything that isn't included here, or you have any comments or questions about the FAQ, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail or post on the Tomb Raider board.
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