Level by Constantine
Walkthrough by Mulf
Note: Most of the level is non-linear. This walkthrough describes the route that I think involves the least amount of backtracking.
Crucial pickups are rendered in bold type (on first mention or where appropriate); secrets are described in smaller type and in italics.
You start in a valley surrounded by rock walls, with a campfire straight ahead and two Icky White Things waddling in your direction. Run towards the campfire and take note of the Torches spread out next it, as well as the cave entrance draped with greenery immediately beyond. You can’t do anything here just yet—you can use one of the torches for lighting your way if you wish as you won’t get any flares, but you don’t need one for gameplay purposes until much later—, so simply continue along the valley until you reach a closed door in a stone wall. You can’t open this door from here, nor can you jump over it, even though it looks like you should be able to; so turn right (W) instead, go up the slope and continue along the path towards an intersection where another path branches off.
When you reach this intersection, look up to your left (W) and spot the crack in the rock wall. Find a place where Lara can jump up and grab it (not all places where she can stand are suited equally well for this purpose; in some, she won’t grab the crack). Shimmy left until you reach a crawlspace. Pull up and pick up the Coins (1/2) from the floor, then get out of the crawlspace and back down to the ground.
You find yourself on the path that branches off from the one you’ve been following, close to a small waterfall. You could now perform a limited number of tasks in the area below and beyond the waterfall, but then you’d be forced to backtrack, and you will access that area later from a different direction anyway, so ignore it for now and return to the intersection. Turn left (N) and follow the path until you reach a ledge overlooking the valley in which you started.
Take a running jump with grab to clear the gap and pull up on the opposite ledge.
Turn left and jump up three triangular tiles in the rock wall for a secret Golden Rose (1/3). Go back down and proceed as follows.
Follow the path to a depression, in which a Knife-Wielding Zombie or Something is guarding his disembodied Heart, placed at the centre of a magic circle he seems to have made with shaving foam. Slide down and jump around a bit to lure him away from the Heart, then pick it up and run away with it. (It helps if during your jumping around you land on top of the Heart; Zombie Guy is quick to push you away). Return to the opening in the ground and safety-drop back down into Icky White Thing Valley.
Enter the cave entrance draped with greenery immediately beyond the campfire. Proceed with caution, as you will be triggering two spiky boulders from the right. Turn left towards a crawlspace next to the place where the boulders have come to rest. Inside, place the Heart you stole in a receptacle on the wall. You get a camera view of a trapdoor opening. This trapdoor is located beyond an opening on the right side of the slope where the boulders came from (you may hear Zombie Guy milling about above you). Drop down through the hole in the ground.
There is one lonely dart trap here (mostly harmless). Go down the corridor past a crawlspace high up on the left until you reach a closed door. Enter a crawlspace at floor level. Take note of the sculpted images on the wall and specifically of their sequence, which is: [blank]—face—ornament. Leave this crawlspace, go back and pull up into the other one. There are three large wall switches here to be pressed in the sequence which you just saw, with the dog’s head obviously filling in the blank; hence: dog’s head—face—ornament (or right—left—middle). Pressing the three switches in correct order opens not the door in this room, but the one out at the end of the corridor. (You don’t get a camera view here, but the switches reset if you got the sequence correct; if not, they’re stuck, and you need to reset them by activating a trigger tile located behind the door in the room where the switches are. This involves a simple pillar-hopping sequence and a monkeyswing.) So climb back out and go through the newly opened door.
Mind the two marked spike tiles on your left and on your right. Otherwise the room is large and empty, the only thing of interest being the ladder at the far end, on your left. Climb up and pass through a suite of equally empty rooms. At the end of the last one, use the floor lever in a corner under an insubstantial bridge to open the door in the opposite wall.
You emerge in a large courtyard that is entirely empty and devoid of interest. Pass through the arch in the wall SE and enter another courtyard with a large building (church) in the middle. You are facing a cemetery, but it, too, holds nothing of interest. Turn immediately right (W) and run along the church façade towards another stone wall.
There are doors in the NW and SW corners of this wall. The one SW leads to the small assembly of buildings which you may have spotted before from above the waterfall. Rein in your curiosity, ignore the new area for now and go NW instead (where you should be now if you’ve been following this walkthrough).
Open the door with the lever next to it and return to the valley to retrieve a Torch (you could have brought one along if it hadn’t been for the ladder you had to climb at one point). Use the campfire to light it, then go back the way you just came. Turn in the direction of the cemetery (E) and find the camouflaged hole in the ground at the bottom of the S wall. Drop down with the torch. Stand under the star-shaped root and jump up to make it catch fire. This somehow results in you being able to pick up a Cross (1/2). Get out (leaving the torch behind) and go around the church to the door in the SW corner of the courtyard.
Open the door with the switch next to it, enter the new area and turn right into a narrow passage between the stone wall and the mill. Backflip onto the top of the slanted pillar opposite the far corner of the mill building and jump-grab to catch the edge of the roof. Shimmy left until you can pull up into a crawlspace. Inside, a fixed camera focuses on a lever in the foreground; push it down. A flyby directs you to an evil door in a neighbouring building. Safety-drop down to the ground and enter this building. Stand below the jumpswitch and jump up to grab it (don’t jump from the windowsill, you’ll only bang your head). This opens the front door of the mill building. Go through that door, get more Coins (2/2) from a dresser (take one step back in front of it before pressing CTRL) and a small medipack from the table. (Ignore the unlit torch and the trapdoor overhead. You can light the torch, but it doesn’t do anything, and the trapdoor won’t open at any point).
Take a detour for a secret (2/3) at the other end of the area. It’s in a small underwater cave near the waterwheel.
If you’re missing a second bag of Coins, climb the block to which the waterwheel is attached and from there up to the roof of the building, then jump once or twice along the rock wall to return in the area above the waterfall; alternatively, you can take the route back through the valley where the Icky White Things are. Either way, refer to the section above regarding Coins (1/2) for further details.
Leave the area and return to the church façade. Place the two bags of Coins in the stone vessels to gain access. Upon entering, turn immediately right into a small room with a ladder. Climb up to an alcove on the left and pick up a second Cross (2/2). Go back down and navigate between and across the pews to arrive at the altar. Place the two Crosses. (You can pick up the ‘Book’—a Bible, one would presume—, but there’s no use for it.)
Drop down into the sinkhole in front of the altar and enter a crawlspace. On the left is a small medipack if you’re desperate. Turn the other way and continue until you reach a kickable piece of wall (looks VCI, sounds kickdoor). Crawl through this opening and drop down the other side; there are more torches here for you to pick up and light (not required). Continue through the left or right passage (doesn’t matter) until you reach skellie alley (looks dangerous, but they only want to play). If you placed both Crosses, the door at the far end will be open. All you need to do is go and claim your prize.
As you pass through skellie alley, you hear a door opening. It’s the sarcophagus (Iron Maiden?) in the second-from-last alcove on the N side. Behind it is a room full of spike traps and a magic mirror indicating the safe and the unsafe tiles as well as the location of the secret (3/3).