SHRINE IN THE RAVINE

Level by Cap A

Walkthrough by Cher, first posted at larashome.com, and posted here with permission.

Note: This level uses the original coastal wads.

Dive into the water; the current only allows you to swim to the right, hurry out of the water, 2 crocodiles attack. Jump back into the water and find a hole to swim into, go all the way down, here in an underground cavern you can get some air. Swim into an opening on the South wall, down and to the right, down, left and left again, down, straight ahead then right and up to surface.

Step on the patterned tile and you see an underwater door opening, this starts a timed swim. Run into the water, down, left, left, down and right through the door. You aren’t safe yet, you hear the “danger” music, 2 boulders come tumbling down, Lara must avoid them to swim to the surface. You find yourself in a sort of sewer system, get out of the water and head West, find an area behind and a closed black door where you can see a Golden Star. Jump back off the edge into the water and follow a narrow swim space and up to some blocks, jump up one level and then again. Climb up the ladder and find the Shotgun, some Revolver Ammo and just beyond, a Gate Key. Notice another ladder to climb; but there is a closed trap door, so swim back to the sewers.

Let’s get a little familiar with the area and at the same time, trigger some crocodiles and get rid of them. From looking at the Golden Star, go left and follow the path around until you come to a doorway on the right, kill the croc and have a look in the room, you see 2 torches lying there, but leave them for now. Cross the water and go in the next door, mind some spikes here. Follow to the right, past the spikes and into a room to pick up a Small Medi, go back and at the spikes, go right and right again, minding another set of spikes into a room where you see you’ll need a fire. Exit this room and when you come to the spikes, go straight, around a corner to the left and right into another passage. You are now in the sewer section behind the fences from where you began. In the water find a deep hole to swim into, follow the passage to a crack in the wall on the right, swim in and pick up some Normal Shotgun Ammo and Revolver Ammo. Swim back out to the left to get some air. If you like, you can swim back into the hole and go beyond the crack in the wall, above is a closed trap door which will be opened later. Now, head for the closed black gate and across the water is a patterned block, step on it and the black door will open, you find yourself back in the original sewer area. Take note of these patterned blocks, they are significant throughout the level.

Cross the water and back to where the golden star is, this time take the path around to the right, see another black door and across, a patterned block? You know what to do. Before you go through the door, from the patterned block, follow the path around to the left until you come to a room where you’ll pick up some Flares. Go back and through the door and you are greeted by a couple of hungry crocs. Go across the water first and into the 2nd door on the left, here’s a trap door you need to open and it’s timed. Go out and into the 1st door, as you enter the room you get a short cut scene showing what needs to be done. First, use the Gate Key to unlock the black door, stand on the patterned tile and save your game, once you get through the trap door there’s some nasty business coming up. Sprint through the gate and into the opening, dropping into some water, minding the current. What you have now is a trap of spikes ready to pop up and kill Lara as she swims, fighting the current all the time. Turn to head North between 2 spike traps, around the corner left, avoiding some more spikes to pull out of the water. Enter the room, ahead you see a pool of water but you cannot get to the other side, it’s too shallow at that end. Climb a couple of ladders, watch the fly by of trapdoors and patterned tiles, going upwards. Each patterned tile opens a trap door, the purpose is to enable a boulder to roll down and through each trap door to land in the water, raising the level so you can get to the other side. Of course, this whole exercise is timed (lol).

Enter the room and start heading up the ramp, when you get to a room, make a side trip to the right to pick up some Revolver ammo, continue up the ramp all the way to the top and the first trigger tile in the uppermost North corner. Back up just to the edge of the tile, facing out, SAVE your game. Hop back onto the tile, run and jump forward to the next, angling to be able to run/jump off the right corner of the gray ledge and jump down towards the next tile, turning slightly left. Jump down, run over that tile, turning left and jump and then to the next, trigger that door and a tricky jump to the final tile. This will more than likely take you several tries and lots of practice but you’ll get it. Now go back to the pool, swim over and grab your Crowbar.

Return to the water, saving your game, mind the spikes popping out and back going between the 2 spike traps, you continue, fighting the current, heading South. Maneuver around 4 sets of spikes. When you make it past the spikes, turn the corner left to head up a slope, there are no more spikes but boulders are waiting to tumble down and crush Lara, try and swim along the right side, the center boulder drops first, after it passes, move to the center and up to the top and right around the corner. Follow the passage around and up and out of the water, climb the stairs and take your Golden Star. Step on the patterned tile to open the black door.

Exit the star room and go to the right, around the corner, right around the corner again and across the water, head right and around the left corner, light a flare and where to use your star. Flames start out of the Sphinx head, now you know how you are going to light the torch. Cross over the water into the door and go grab a Torch, carefully light it and go next door to the spike hallways. In the door, following the path until it branches, go left, straight back and right, past the spikes into the room with the burner to light. Go through the opened door and into a room. Be very careful here, there are spikes all over this room. Still holding your torch, head to a safe place on a small ledge at the West side of the room. Standing facing the spikes, the next tile appears to be a trap but it isn’t. Use your binoculars to look ahead and to the left. You must time a run/hop into that opening, holding your torch. It looks harder than it is, but save your game first. Here’s a little trick I did. I put my torch down in a safe place, lit a flare and threw it down in front of the opening, then it’s not such a blind jump.

Once you jump into the opening, jump down into a different part of the sewers, quickly cross the water to put your torch safely down, there’s a crocodile heading for you. Pick up some Normal Shotgun Ammo and your torch. Head down the path, through an opening in the fence in left into a doorway, follow the path around, you hear a door opening. As you enter this room, be warned there are lots of boulders suspended from the ceiling, ready to drop. Save your game, go straight ahead onto a patterned tile, turn left and run into the room, sort of curving left. That’s the best I can do, I ended up safely standing with boulders falling all around me. Once all the boulders have fallen, the other door opens, enter and light the burners in 4 corners of the room, take care you don’t get too close or you’ll set yourself on fire. Now you are done with the torch. The black door opens and you see a blue gem ahead. Careful, there’s a boulder above it. There are 2 patterned tiles, as you look at the door, the one on left opens the trap door there in the water. The one on the right raises a ledge to prevent the boulder from falling on Lara but, as you’ve probably figured out, it’s timed. Save your game, stand on the tile facing the door, sprint in, grab your Horseman’s Gem and jump back.

As you head for the water hole, you get a cut scene of the ladder where you grabbed your gate key, remember? Just below the golden star room, through the swim space. Swim down through the hole, this was the trap door at the end of the passage with the crack in the wall, end up back in the sewers, now go find your ladder.

At the top of the ladder, jump down, you are finished with this area now. Pick up some Normal Shotgun Ammo] in one corner and someRevolver Ammo in another. Find a door, go up some stairs and climb another ladder. You are in a huge temple room. You see that you need 2 more gold stars. Find a door on the South wall and climb the stairs, stopping along the way to pick up some Normal Shotgun Ammo. At the top, as you enter the door, there’s a lava pool and 5 patterned tiles. It might be a good idea to draw your shotgun now, as 4 skeletons will attack. It’s fairly easy to blow them into the lava pool. Step on all 5 tiles to trigger the black door to open.

Climb up the ladder and nearly at the top, back flip off, turn and look at this new area. This is a flip map room. As you start, you have a central walkway with this door and another at the other end. Off to the sides are 2 openings on each side. Look on either side of the ladder you just jumped off and you’ll see trigger tiles, it is the same through the door at the opposite end.

Turn with Lara’s back to the room and jump down to the trigger tile on the right, you get a cut scene of both ramps on the same side of the room. Go have a look and you’ll see a trigger tile in one of the rooms and in the other, the ornate handle for the Portal Guardian, on fire. Step on the trigger tile, this turns off the fire, save your game and run out of the room, jumping onto the ramp, jumping to cut corners whenever possible to pick up the Ornate Handle.

Go to the North end of the walkway and jump down to the trigger tile on the right side, go back to the walkway, one of the ramps has moved to the other side. Go to the South end and jump onto the trigger tile on the left to move the 2nd ramp. Now do a timed run on this side to get the Hathor Effigy. I think this run was a little tighter than the first.

Go to the South entrance and down the ladder. Head back through the lava pool room and back to the temple. Head for a doorway on the North wall of the room. Pass through and come out into a room with a large central structure surrounded by lava water. Jump into the opening on the far of the central structure. Save your game and turn to the left and walk under the overhang, do a standing jump to catch the edge of the higher ledge. Run/jump across the pool to the ledge on the other side, climb on the higher block and turn left and again, grab the edge of the higher ledge. Run/jump across again and this time grab the high edge to the right. Now there seems nowhere to go, turn to face the outside and jump to grab the edge of a slope, back flip onto the top of the central structure and jump to enter a door on the other side. Walk ahead and drop down into a room where you find a place to use your blue gem. A slight rumbling occurs and a trap door near you opens. Save your game and drop down through, you are standing on yet another closed trap door surrounded by a burning floor and rolling doors. This is another boulder trap, as you move around, the doors roll up, letting a boulder through and then close. You need to keep moving around and dodging until they’ve all rolled. Drop through the trap door when it opens, go back to your temple room and see some steps have been formed from the small earthquake. Climb to the top, combine the two pieces of the Portal Guardian and place it. The two black doors in the temple now open.

I went in the door on the South wall first, follow the passage to drop down, ahead is a strange central structure, you can see doors around the walls but none you can reach, jump into the water and swim through a passage. Climb out and walk through the passage, there’s a dead skeleton laying on the floor, this should give you a hint to draw your shotgun and save your game. As you approach the door, a skeleton jumps in front of you, blast him to gain a little time. The room ahead has safe tiles, burning floor, 4 pits and a ladder in two corners, a closed black door in the furthest. All of pits have spike traps but one of them has a ladder to shimmy to the side the spikes to step on a trigger tile. Here’s what I did:

Blast the skellie in the doorway, jump across the safe tiles ahead to the ladder. At the top, head for the Revolver pickup, 2 skeletons awake, you can blast them off the edges. Step on the patterned tile. Save your game, draw your shotgun and drop from the edge to one of the safe paths, get the skeletons blasted into the pits. Now head for the pit with the ladder, it’s the one nearest the door, climb down, shimmy over and step on the patterned tile, the black door in the far corner has opened. Go in there and step on a 3rd patterned tile. I have no idea which tile does what, there are no cut scenes. But one of them raises the water level where you came in to reach the next opening, so return there and swim into the next passage.

Surface to pick up the Laser Site and head into a passage. This one is tough, save your game and prepare to be chased by lots of skeletons. I’m thinking the author provided the revolver and laser site previously in order to blow their heads off but there is no way you have the time or place to do this so I just kept running and jumping over them. This is what you have to do, this is a maze of stairways, left and up some stairs is a closed black door, you need to find 2 patterned tiles to trigger the door open, one is somewhere left of the door hallway, the other is right of the entrance. Once the door is opened, there’s another patterned tile to raise the water level, go back there.

Swim to the top, pick up another Gate Key, swim into the highest water opening on the West side, swim through, use your key and take the Golden Star, swim back through the opening on the East side to return to the temple and head for the open black door on the North wall.

Now you have several blocks in a pool, some are spiked, some are not. If you jump into the water and swim around, you can see hints on which blocks are safe, it goes like this though: Jump to the 1st block on the right side, from there run/jump over the 2nd block to catch the edge of the 3rd straight ahead. Turn left and jump to the center block in this row, then diagonally to the one in front of the left side door. Head up the stairs and end overlooking a room below with slopes, and a fire area left, slide down the slope and turn to the right. Ahead in an elevated door you see a boulder, off to the sides are openings containing boulders also. You must run, jump pausing every now and then to get by the boulders until you get to the end, stand at the edge of the right slope turning so the boulder in the opening is on the right, when you see it start to roll out, back flip back to avoid it. Climb into the opening, the path to the right is the way out, ahead is a ladder, and at the top is a closed black door you need to open. Stand at the edge of the opening, angling towards the right side boulder hole. Run/jump with a slight curve to the right to land in the opening, step on the patterned tile to open the door at the top of the ladder, climb and when you nearly reach the top, back flip, climb some more stairs and take the 2nd Golden Star.

Now you have a nasty little bit to do. Save your game, when you start back down the steps, boulders start after you. You must start running, after you turn the corner, sprint down the stairs, when you get to the flat spot before the ladder, jump to grab the ladder, releasing and grabbing all the way down and flip away from the bottom before the boulders land. Not easy, and it will take more than likely take you several tries to get it. Head down the passage to the left and exit the area, jump into the water to go across and back into the temple to place the stars.

Placing the stars opens 4 trap doors in the ceiling, letting light through and illuminating the path out. Go there and face your final task, spike blocks. This is not as bad as it looks, stand at the edge on the right side, as the spikes are just popping out on the first block, standing jump onto it, jump ahead, side flip left and jump ahead and jump to grab the edge across. Take your Pharoh’s Knot to end this innovative and fun adventure.