CRYSTAL MINES

A TR3 custom level by GameGlitcher77

Unauthorised walkthrough by eTux

Note on brightness:  You can select the sunglasses from the in-game options menu and increase the gamma levels if you find the level too dark. The default level is 3.

Designations:  Enemies; Pickups; Secrets; Guidelines.

 

Outside the base (+ secret #1)

You start the level only with your pistols, but don't despair - the obstacles may be abundant, but so are the pickups and you should be fully supplied soon enough. There's a crowbar beneath an operating crushing machine where you start, and a tunnel with a closed door on your right. Go to the open area with the minecart tracks - and notice a guard inside a station straight ahead. As you approach the door, it will open and 2 mercenaries (1,2) will come out. Deal with them and pick up the small medipack (1), Desert Eagle (2), desert eagle ammo (3), and 2x MP5 ammo (4, 5) they leave behind. There are 2 buttons in this room, the one on the right protected by a drill. Push the one on the left to stop the crushing machine - if necessary the button can be pushed repeatedly to get the position of the crusher just right. Hug the wall to avoid the drill, run or sidestep to the button on the right. Save your game. What follows is a timed run towards the door near the crushing machine at the start. It's not a very tight run, and there are no significant obstacles en route to the door, if you don't count the drill. When you reach the room, you'll hear the chimes for secret #1 - although none of the secrets will register in the statistics. (This room is also awfully dark - so it might be a good idea to increase the in-game gamma settings if you haven't done so already. It looked fine at about a setting of 6 on my system, but feel free to experiment). The lower platform on your right has 2x MP5 ammo (6, 7) and the higher one has the MP5 gun (8) and MP5 ammo (9). As you pick them up, you hear some cautionary music and a flamethrower guy (3) will appear outside. Use either of your better guns on these guys, as they can set Lara ablaze easily if they get too close. Pick up the rocket (10) he leaves, and then get the crowbar (11) under the now deactivated crushing machine. Return to the tracks and use the crowbar on the door bolt to unlock the room where the minecart is kept. There's another flamethrower guy (4) inside, but he hasn't noticed Lara yet, so it's possible to take him out before he does. Pick up the rocket (11) he leaves behind.

First minecart ride

If you need directions on how to operate the minecart - here's a short summary:

Action = swing wench (operate levers on side of tracks); get inside minecart;

Jump = use breaks;

Duck = duck inside minecart (to avoid girders or drills);

Roll + Left/Right = get out of cart;

Note: There may be different ways to do the minecart sequences, but the ones described here worked for me.

Approach the minecart from either side and press action to get inside. It will start moving immediately. Hit the lever with the wench as you pass it by to open the door. It's a bit tricky to get the right speed for the next sequence - too fast and you'll crash into a wall, too slow - you won’t have enough momentum to clear the gap at the end of the curve. Here's how I managed to do it: when approaching the slope, use the brakes to slow the cart down till you approach the big slope just about where the snowy terrain starts. Then let go of the brakes and duck to avoid the girder as it rolls down - ride through the curve and let the cart drop over the gap - if you followed the above instructions you should have the required speed to clear it. Duck right after the gap to avoid another girder, and get out at the end, at the first checkpoint.

First checkpoint (+ secret #2)

Hold your desert eagle ready to take out a flamethrower guy (5) as you approach the door. Pick up the rocket (12) he leaves, and push the button to open the door in the middle. Approach a similar door on the other side of the grated fence to make it open and take out the mercenary (6) inside the checkpoint. He leaves behind MP5 ammo (13) and a small medipack (14). Push a button in here to open the second checkpoint door. You're technically ready to get on with the minecart ride, but let's explore the area first on foot for a secret.

Continue along the tracks and either jump over or time passing the horizontal drill. The greenish door off the tracks will open as you approach, but do so armed, for a flamethrower guy (7) will be inside. When you enter the hut 2 more mercenaries (8, 9) will attempt to charge in. When they're all dead, you can pick up the rocket (15), flares (16), desert eagle ammo (17), large medipack (18) and MP5 ammo (19) they leave behind. Pick up the 3 rockets (20, 21, 22) and the rocket launcher (23) in this room for secret #2 (again, it doesn't register in the statistics). Backtrack to the minecart.

Second minecart ride

Get in the minecart and it will start moving. Hit the lever right after the checkpoint to open the door you saw at the end of the rails at the bottom of the slope. Hold the brakes right after hitting the switch for a second or two, as you don't want to build up too much speed - let go of the brakes shortly before the drill, so you can duck to avoid it. Try and hold the brakes for a second or so right after the drill too - but it isn't that crucial here if you can't manage it. Hit the lever right before the door - this will make the cart go straight ahead at the next fork - if you miss it, you'll go left instead and crash. Duck to avoid the girder right after the lever. If you didn't manage to before - hold the breaks here for a second or two to decrease the speed somewhat.

The minecart will move straight ahead into a loop of tracks. There are a lot of girders in here, so it's best to duck in the cart until after the 3 consecutive drills. There will be a lever right after them that opens the door to the second checkpoint. Duck to avoid a drill and a girder. Then get up to hit another lever, that will make you go left at the next fork. If you can't get up and hit the lever fast enough you may be moving too fast - either try holding the brakes for a short while before entering the loop, or right before the first lever to get the right speed. Also - if you happen to miss hitting the first lever, don't hit the second one too - this way the cart will enter the loop again (as opposed to going left out of it (and crashing, since you failed to open the door)) and you can just try hitting both again. If you hit both levers - the cart will go left and down a slope. Duck to avoid a girder, and get out of the cart at the end.

Second checkpoint

This should be familiar to you by now. The door will open as you approach - but there will be another flamethrower guy (10) in here who will leave a rocket (24). Push the button to open the door on the tracks. Approach the other door for it to open and a mercenary (11) to come out. He will have desert eagle ammo (25) on him. Push the button to open the next door. Get back in the minecart.

Third minecart ride

This is a comparatively brief ride, but as tricky as the rest if not even more so. Hit the lever as you pass it to open the door ahead. Now comes a section that is very tricky to time right, so don't beat yourself up if you don't succeed at first. Hold the brakes from about where the incline starts as the cart is going down the slope, and at about the mid-point of the slope release them and duck to avoid a girder. Get right back up immediately after it and hit the lever to open the door ahead. If you held the brakes long enough the speed should be about right to manage the above sequence. Duck to avoid another girder and get out again in the mines.

The crystal mines (+ opening the door to secret #3)

As you step forward from the minecart, a flamethrower guy (12) and a mercenary (13) will try to ambush you from behind. You can either kill them and collect the small medipack (26), MP5 gun (27) (ammo, if you already have the gun), MP5 ammo (28) and the Rocket launcher (29) (rocket, if you already have the gun) they leave or run straight to the left side corner of the room and drop down the hole. If you face the left wall and jump towards it while holding action (as if to grab a ledge) you can drop into a lower tunnel without losing much health. Kill a mercenary (14) at the end of it, but don't leave this hallway yet.

Do a standing jump from the edge of the hallway up and left to a snowy ledge (it looks a bit turquoise from the room below). From there scale 2 more snow ledges (the closest triangular tile on the next ledge is treacherous - it looks solid, but you can fall through it) till you reach the top of a bigger area. Jump on a higher ledge around the right corner with a horizontal drill. Time your jump and reach a high ledge in the corner with a button. Press it to open a door for a secret a bit further in the next area.

Note: An alternative, though not necessarily a simpler way to get to the button bypassing the ledge sequence described above - is to climb on top of the crystal rock block using the crawl button (Lara gets pushed down again using the regular climb up mode), crawl to the middle of the block, then perform a running jump to the last of the ledges before the drill ledge.

Drop down to the main mines area with the crushing machines. Approach the door straight ahead from the minecart with the crusher on its right. Press the button next to it. Continue left to the white metal segment with the door bolt - press the button there to open the door ahead of the minecart, but don't go there yet. Approach the crusher that has the dark greenish metallic base (as opposed to the red ones). It also has a button on its side. You can use it to disable the crushers with the red base. As with the first one in the level - you can use it multiple times if you need to adjust the position of the crusher. Once you get it right, go to the one near the door you opened previously and pick up the crowbar (30) - a mercenary (15) will appear on the block behind the crusher - kill him to get his MP5 ammo (31). Go to the other crusher and pick up the lead acid battery (32), and a flamethrower guy (16) will appear near the minecart. Kill him and get his rocket (33). The crowbar and the battery open the 2 closed doors at opposite ends of this mine area, but the order in which you do them ultimately doesn't matter.

Place the battery to open the door on the right hand side. There's a mercenary (17) you can take out from a distance at the other end of the room. Time your run past the 3 moving mine carts and pick up the anti-gravity crystal (34). Another mercenary (18) from the main area may attempt to attack you here, so kill him and get his desert eagle ammo (35).

Use the crowbar to break the door bolt on the other end of this mine area. Kill the flamethrower guy (19) and pick up his anti-gravity crystal (36). Another mercenary (20) will appear on top of the drill machine - he will leave a small medipack (37) after his demise.

Now go to the door ahead of the minecart. If you face the room you came from from within this room - you'll notice odd looking textures on each side of the door. You have to use the 2 anti-gravity crystals on them, or you will not be able to complete the next minecart sequence. After you've placed both, go to the minecart.

Fourth minecart ride (+ secret #3)

Hit the lever to open the door ahead. This is probably the simplest sequence in terms of what you have to do - as when Lara's cart slides down towards the other cart, it will sort of crash into it, thus sending it into its back and forth patrol, whilst stopping Lara's own cart. As far as I've been able to tell, you don't have to do anything in particular (i.e. hit brakes, use the wench) for this to happen. If it doesn't - you most likely have not placed the crystals before the ride, and should reload a savegame to do so. (If you fail to see the logic of this, you're not the only one, but alas, that's how it works.)

Assuming you've got this far - get out of the minecart as quickly as you can, as the one you've set in motion inflicts harm on Lara. The door you opened via the high button in mines is here, so go there for secret #3 and pick up another anti-gravity crystal (38), a large medipack (39), MP5 ammo (40), a rocket (41) and desert eagle ammo (42). (Note: Not only does this not register as a secret, I did not even hear the secret chimes this time. When I inspected the level's map, the corresponding trigger was there, so I still will count this as a secret for the sake of this walkthrough.)

Get back on tracks, and retreat on higher ground where the moving cart can't reach you. With a running jump and grab get hold of the edge above where your minecart stopped and pull up to the area above.

Mercenary headquarters

There's yet another minecart here, but ignore it for now. As you approach the plateau, a door on your left will open and a mercenary (21) will come out. He leaves behind MP5 ammo (42), and if you explore the room he came from you can find desert eagle ammo (43) and a rocket (44). Go to the wooden building and the door will open as you approach - kill the 2 mercenaries (22, 23) and get the large and small medipack (45, 46) they leave behind. Push the button below the map of Antarctica to open the nearby door outside. Move on to the last checkpoint building - the door will open as you approach. Kill the mercenary (24) inside and push the button to open the door. Move on to the other door and kill the flamethrower guy (25) before he gets you. Push the button inside, and the final door is cleared. If you want to, you can take care of the 2 mercenaries (26, 27) before heading back to the minecart. One of the doors in this courtyard never opens, so far as I know.

The final minecart ride

Get in the cart and duck immediately to avoid being knocked over by the crane. Hit the lever to make the cart go left at the fork (going straight ahead is a dead end). The minecart will stop at the checkpoint - so you can open the final doors here if you didn't already. If you did, just dismount and mount the minecart again to move on. As the cart goes over the hill, there will be one final flamethrower guy (28), but you don't have to take any special measures to kill him, as the minecart will do it for you. Watch the helicopter arrive and jump towards it for the level to end.

Statistics:

Kills: 28

Pickups: 46

Secrets: 3 of 3

THE END