SEARCH FOR THE LOST CAIN

Level by Cain

This level was not made and is not supported by Core Design, Crystal Dynamics or Eidos Interactive. Not at all. Level by Cain.

This walkthrough was not made and is not supported by Core Design, Crystal Dynamics or Eidos Interactive. Not at all. Walkthrough by DJ Full.

This walkthrough was not posted by Core Design, Crystal Dynamics or Eidos Interactive. Not at all. Posted by Phil Lambeth.

This walkthrough was not read by Core Design, Crystal Dynamics or Eidos Interactive. Not at all. Read by you, players.

FIRST AID NOTES:

1. In THE ONLY ONE WAY TO GET OUT chapter, DON'T SAVE until I explain to you what's going on there. If you save in a bad moment, you're doomed and will need to replay the level from the beginning. So, I beg you, player, DON'T SAVE THERE until you are completely sure you understood my description.

2. In HEADING THROUGH chapter use 10 medipacks only. See HEADING THROUGH 2 to know the reason.

3. Also, always save two medikits in your inventory. See HEADING THROUGH 2 to know the reason. I find using only the large ones a good way of saving health, as I forget I have the small ones and they can save me later. But every player has his/her own way of saving health, and it all depends on what you prefer.

4. If I don't describe precisely which structure I talk about, it means there's only one of them in the room. One pit, one slope, one enemy, etc.

5. If the game annoys you, take a break (drive to the pit-stop or pool-stop and go for a walk, as this is Cain's level and these are like Monty Python - 50% loves them, 50% hates them (however there is nobody who doesn't bother and this is one of the reasons why these customs are unique).

6. "Pit" and "pool" are two different things. "Pool" means "a hole full of water". "Pit" means "a hole full of anything different from water, e.g. lava, air, eels etc. If a pool is full of eels, I call it a "pool", because it is still a WATER solution of eels. If a pit is full of concrete, sugar, or anything else that chemically binds water, I call it a "pit", because these materials are not elements of water solution. Cain hasn't made any pit full of concrete and sugar, BTW... so be explorating, observating etc., so this way you're not gonna read my pointless chemical notes again.

Ad rem:

SLOPES SERIES 1

You start the game, falling onto a slope. Jump to the next one and repeat it 4 times to land in a room full of eels.

THE MOST EFFICIENT METHOD OF KILLING EELS IN SEMI-OPEN SPACES

Jump S, roling in midair and backflip S three more times. Then jump E three times. Do the same, but jumping N and W. Repeat this cycle and this way you can kill all the enemies without using any medikit. Remember this method, as it will be useful later. Pick up a medikit and save it for later, too. The enemy drops Killing eel Key. Pick it up and grab a large medipack. Use the key to open door.

Repeat all these things in next room. After third killing spree some eel drops a Door Key, so use it and exit.

SLOPES SERIES 2

Now you must perform a next series of slide/jump operations, and fall to the bottom of the last pit to find a medipack. Climb the ladder, jump over the pit, slide/jump several times again, rest for a while and slide for the last time to catch some fire.

LARA ON FIRE

Run N, then W and turn N on the large crossroad (or, say, cross-tunnel). After using 3 medikits (that's why You saved them earlier), you'll see a small pool on your right at the end of the path. Jump in and get out, because there's one more medikit above you.

THE KILLING FI(EEL)DS

There's a closed door in front of you. It won't open. Return to the hole full of water and find an underwater passage leading to a room full of SASes, a sentry and a giant chicken. Pick up a grenade launcher and ignore all the enemies, as getting ouf of sentry's range to find a motorbike results in losing less health than blowing'em up. What is more, as soon as you enter the vehicle, the nearby baddies are programmed to die. Now get rid of the rest of SASes and don't get too close to sentry, cause it will set you on fire if you do so. Pick up a medikit laying beyond sentry's range. Use the bike to jump over a pit and drive into a tunnel on the E.

When you finish running over a huge amount of SASes, don't mind another motorbike. It's for returning, so don't stop and jump over a deep hole, landing on a platform in front of you. Now, jump to the platform closest to you and watch out, as it's impossible not to lose any health here. Climb a steep slope using your vehicle and find a marked square. Stand on it. It opens that door next to the pool you've previously jumped into. Pick up the medipacks and return to it, using a ladder in previous room (that yellow, beautifully stretched texture shows it well) and the second motorbike (optionally).

Enter the open door. Kill several monkeys. IF YOU RETURN TO THE PREVIOUS ROOM, THEY'LL REAPPEAR. Pick up the medikit. Proceed to the next room, where a flying shark, a chicken, an eel and two monkeys will say hello to you. Kill'em and remember: THE MONKEYS RESPAWN WHEN LARA RETURNS TO THE LAST ROOM. Pick up the shotgun (Eel Killa!!!). The T-Rex appears. SAVE SHOTGUN AMMO for the next one, killing monkeys with pistols. Advance and shoot the dino, in the meantime picking up the grenade gun. Use it to kill mummies ONLY. Two appear in front of you. Find 19 medipacks, grab the vehicle, kill some more flying sharks and (optionally) a T-Rex and drive up the ramp (or any other slope). You don't need to kill eels, Cain has placed them just for optional killing joy. BTW, I couldn't resist and wiped them out. Find a pool and jump in. WATCH OUT FOR THE INVISIBLE WALL!

HEADING THROUGH

Oh, yes, it's one of these mazes... Many people seems it makes no sense, but Cain gave us a hint this time. He wants us to follow the egyptian king textures. USE ONLY 10 MEDIPACKS. Their heads point in the direction when you're supposed to swim. This way you'll reach the fresh air.

MASS GRASS PASS

Watch out for the fire grass.

SLOPES SERIES 3

Do the slide/jump series again, avoid the spikeball, watch out for the fire grass, kill eels and sharks, pick up a grenade gun three times and go N. Kill eels, open a door by standing on a marked square, return to the place where you've killed the last sharks, and now go E. Avoid the pools - they're deadly. Go through the open door and reach a motorbike. Not this one. The other one. Run over a herd of monkeys. IF YOU RETURN TO THIS ROOM, THEY'LL REAPPEAR AND YOU'LL EXPERIENCE A WONDERFUL MONKEY-KILLING REPLAY.

THE MOST DIFFICULT MOTORBIKE JUMP EVER

Now perform an extremely difficult jump. Keep the motorbike close to the left wall and aim right (a little). Don't stop. Pass two gaps in the road at full speed, aiming a little more right in the last part of the ride. Hit the brakes while flying over third gap, turning right at the same time. Lara can stop within one square this way. This is impossible in real world, so some players may want to give up this jump. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE IT, believe me or believe the programmers. It's the second time I see Cain INCLUDING FAILURES OF GAME ENGINE PHYSICS IN HIS GAMEPLAY. And I still don't know if he is mad, or genious. Anyway, When the jump is done properly, you'll find yourself with both wheels standing on the very edge of a destination platform. It's very easy to fall into an extremely deep pit with four shotguns at the bottom. No, you're not able to pick them up, and only if you fall into the pit, you will know why you can't do this. Well, I think you will fall at least 7 times, honestly. I fell at about 40 before I worked out what an author was thinking of.

THE REST OF JUMPS

...is easy for you if you managed to do the first one. Avoid the pit on your right while performing the last series. Ignore another motorbike left on your way and drive up to the top of a slope on your left. Stop here for a moment and press forwards for short time. Land on the next platform and make sure you have full health. Get out of a motorbike for a while and kill some more enemies. Remember - the T-Rex is resistant to grenade gun. It also seems to lock up when you try to blow it up. So don't.

THE PROPHECY

Get back on the bike. I have foreseen Cain is gonna create one of his epic backtracks in this game. You, player, may have known it as well. We've seen the signs:

- a cage with medikits stored for later (it doesn't work, BTW, so watch out)

- doubled motorbikes

- respawning monkeys.

It happens now, so turn the music from dramatic praerian dog video on now.

THE ONLY WAY TO GET OUT

This is the moment I wonder again: Has the author commited one serious mistake... or has he intended to do this... There's NO doubled motorbike in THE KILLING FIEELDS area. DON'T LAND ON THE NEXT PLATFORM, AND DEFINITELY DON'T SAVE IF YOU DO SO. If you lose the previous save, you're doomed. Instead of replaying whole level, aim left and land in front of a stone door. A motorbike can go through them. It's another moment when Cain uses a game engine bug in gameplay. TIP FOR LATER: Only a swan dive can help you jump over a door like this, when you're not in a vehicle. You don't need to perform it, it's just a tip. Grab 5 medipacks and see the fire. You know what happens next...

CHARIOT OF FIRE

Speed through the maze. If you can, use the 4 medikits only. Don't jump into the pool when on a bike!!!

HEADING THROUGH 2

Dry yourself and make a backtrack through THE KILLING FIEELDS. Caution: the newly open crate with some medikits is not accessible at all. This time I think it is not intended. Anyway, that's why I warned you to use 10 medikits only when you were visiting the HEADING THROUGH maze for the first time. Now use another 9 (and these remaining in your inventory).

THE REST OF BACKTRACK IS THE SAME

You know how it all was once, so go and make it. I'll meet you in several minutes.

THE NEW PROPHECY

You're back on a platform from THE PROPHECY chapter. Now you can do what you like with your bike. Go through the open door. Don't get on the bike.

A SPECTACULAR ENDING

What could be an epic level without an epic boss? This one has surprised me. I knew it will, so I wrote this phrase before I saw it. It's a fire cobra, not so original enemy, but it's placed so well it causes an explosion of the motorbike everytime Lara tries to jump down using her vehicle. Fortunately, she can drive through the door object, as mentioned above. That's why you should do, but not at once. Wait a moment until the two activated T-Rexes leave the room. Even if they're harmless in comparison to the fire snake, they cause an explosion of the motorbike as well. Beware! There's a second cobra on your right. Get on the motorbike and jump between the two snakes. Ride away, running over a monkey and last examples of an evil eel in this level. Activate the rest of monkeys by doing the circles around the room. Killing all of them activates the exit. Get outta vehicle, grab The Lost Cain from a pedestal and... wait...

ADMIRING

After seeing tons of stretched textures, this is a real marvel. I didn't expect such a surprise from Cain, but it was well worth getting here. It makes the same impression like, say, when, after an entire hour filled with thousands of sad harmonic evolutions one hears a happy ending of Dmitry Shostakovich's symphony. You are feeling the Katharsis - something is naturally clearing your mind, and then making you smile. Why? Because You're in the only one fine textured room in this custom. Welcome and enjoy. Pick up The Lost Cain.

(This is the end of playable part, next section described what you will not see)

END OF THE ROAD

The finish trigger exists, but you're not able to hit it. Next door should open when Lara picks up The Lost Cain, but nothing like this happens.

WHY?

Firstly, I used Fexinspect and I was ensured the artifact and the trigger activating the door are placed correctly, exactly on the same square. I thought Cain might have required some special conditions to activate the door, that there is some kind of trigger triggerer, and I tried all these things to find it:

- Killing all the T-Rexes before picking up the artifact

- Jumping into the snake room without using a motorbike

- Activating the monkeys several times

- Doing this all without dying, which prevented the T-Rexes from locking up.

All these operations resulted in nothing. So I put Cain's level into Room Editor and I found that the trigger on the square where The Lost Cain is placed is actually a group of triggers, some of which are overlapped. This explains why the door doesn't wanna open.

LOOKING FOR HOPE

I tried to fix it, getting rid of these overlapping triggers which activate something I have already killed (I mean two "Pickup for Baboon_Normal" triggers). However, when I wanted to reload Cain's objects and bring the whole thing to life, a try of ripping Cain's objects from .tr4 file resulted in a crash of TR2WAD. I got "Runtime error 9" monit, misleading, I know it because I managed to rip objects from other levels correctly. For some reason TR2WAD couldn't handle Cain's object file. I can't find where it's broken. So it failed to put this level together. Maybe Cain will fix it one day. For now it's game over.

WHAT IF THE TRIGGER WORKED?

From Fexinspect we can see the following scenario: the door opens, as Lara picks up the artifact, and there is an epic battle next: 4 enormous Von Croy's desert hitmen, each at about 30 meters high, attack Lara, triggered one by one as she passes the largest room in this custom. They push her in every direction with ludicrous speed. Like most of Cain's bosses, they're really friendly and polite - it's amazing, they are so gentle that even their huge size doesn't make them less careful not to hurt a tiny, fragile woman, running among their feet. Or maybe it's their habit to be polite, I don't know. Anyway, Lara is cruel, draws the shotgun and wipes them out, like she used to do many times before. Cold, malicious, stone-hearted Lara... How dare you? After the battle the last door open and she runs through the last corridor, hitting the finish trigger and escaping from the place, leaving the crimescene without any sign of mercy.

Fine