Level 21

Cleopatra's Palaces.

IF YOU DID THIS IN THE LAST LEVEL, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO IT NOW.

Room with fountain:

Dive into the pool and find the small underwater crawlspace near the fountain. Swim down the crawlspace and surface in a room with a small hole in the wall. Use the Action key to lower a floor somewhere and reveal a sitting bench. (Note, you will not see the room with the sunken floor for a while, so don't bother looking for it like I did.

Back room with spikes:

Enter the back room and start shooting the sitting benches. Pick up A large medi-pack, revolver ammo and crossbow ammo. Not much you can do about the spike area now, so find the ramp and go upstairs.

Back room upstairs:

Shoot the sitting bench and pick up red and blue shotgun shells. Go out to the balcony and admire the scenery. Meanwhile, a skeleton materialises behind you.

Get out the shotgun and shoot him onto the ramp.

Find the engraved wall in one corner. Use the crowbar to pry the Door open. Follow the tunnel and look out a barred window at the fountain below.  Pry open another door and follow the dark tunnel until you reach a hole in the floor. Save your game. Slide down the ramp and take a curving jump to the left. (You can turn Lara while she is in the air using the arrow keys.) Wade through the oil to the left until you can climb out by the scarab beetle before the oil catches on fire.

Pry out the Black Beetle.  Jump over the oil to the nearby ledge. Line up a simple jump to the ramp which is now a stairs.  Go back up the stairs and return to the area with three stairs and a pool.

Return to Pharos, Temple of Isis (Room with small pyramid and beetles) Go up the middle stairs and place and place the Black Beetle in the receptacle. The top will rise and now you can pick up the Mechanical Scarab. With that in your backpack, return to Cleopatra's palaces and the room with the fountain.

NORMAL GAMEPLAY.

Cleopatra's Palaces and room with the fountain:

Now go into the back room and find the spike holes. Combine the Mechanical Scarab with the Winding key and place it on the Beetle drawing on the floor. Wait until the Mechanical Scarab crosses the spikes, and then follow.

Pick up the beetle after you have crossed the spikes. Take the door to the left with the sandstone doorway and open the long box to pick up the Right Gauntlet of the Armour of Horus. This conjures up a skeleton. Blow him up with some explosive crossbow ammo. Now you need to pass the knives.  Line up with the centre of the blade and time a run just as the blades are opening. Return to the hall by the spike hall.

Wide doorway by palm tree:

Take the wide doorway by the palm tree. A skeleton appears, run and Jump over the handy nearby pool. Wait until the skeleton jumps to your side, and then use the shotgun to knock him in the pool. Follow the spiked hallway y the doorway which is farthest from the pool of water. Use the Mechanical Scarab to get across the hall of spikes. Next, take the Small opening on the right.

Knife blades! Reach into the long box and get some blue shotgun shells which of course conjures up another skeleton.  Shoot him, and then carefully time a run through the knives.

Large chamber with long box:

Enter large chamber with a long box. Sooner or later you will trigger a gold flying creature. Shoot it with the Uzi's.

Open the long box and pull out a small medi-pack. From the long box, continue up the hall keeping the wall on your right.

Area with two spiked halls:

Enter the room in the corner that needs a Pharos Pillar and pick up some red shotgun shells. Take the spiked hallway at the end of the hall where you can see a long box in the room beyond the spiked hallway. Use The Mechanical Scarab to get across.

Secret #1! Reach in the long box and pull out small medi-pack, crossbow ammo, blue shotgun shells and three sets of red shotgun shells. Return to the main hall. You can try the Mechanical Scarab on the other spiked hallway (leads back to the Small pool of water), but the Mechanical Scarab spins and then breaks.  (For the secret, you must have taken the first spiked path farthest from the pool of water in the room with first two spiked paths.)

Return to the large chamber with the long box.

Hall with two birds painted on the wall:

Go down the hall with the two birds painted on the wall. If you swam through the small crawlspace by the fountain, you will find the sunken floor revealing a sitting bench. Shoot the sitting bench and pick up some crossbow ammo. Use a standing jump grab from the alcove to get out of the sunken floor area. As you explore, you will find a switch high on the wall. Going near the wall switch produces a skeleton. Lure the skeleton near the sunken floor and use the shotgun to knock him in the sunken floor.

Pull the switch using a jump grab. This raises a block and opens a Door near the switch. The door is back to the small pool and two hallways with spikes back where you started. Get on the raised block and do a Standing jump with grab to the crack on the wall near the switch.

Crack on the wall:

Follow the crack and shimmy your way around the corners until you can climb up. Shoot the long box and pick up crossbow ammo. Enter a door with knives. Another long box! Reach in and pull out the Right Greave!

The usual skeleton shows up, so blast toward the convenient nearby pool. Exit the room with the knives and go back to the crack where you entered.  (Note: the nearby drop to a lower hall with spikes on either side is the no-secret path for the spiked hallways.) Return to the hall with the two birds painted on the wall.

Hall with two birds painted on the wall:

The door is now open. Enter and shoot the sitting benches. Pick up a large medi-pack and crossbow ammo. Reach into the long box and pull out The Pharos Knot. Return to the large room with the long box and go down the hall towards the area with two spiked halls. Remember the receptacle that you saw by the room with the secret. Go back there.

Area with two spiked halls:

Find the receptacle for the Pharos Knot in the corner and place the Pharos Knot. This opens a door by the Pharos Knot symbol.

Chamber with statue:

Enter the door and pick up the small medi-pack on the centre block.  A swirling fire and a statue of Lara appears.  Can't do too much with the statue, so climb on the block by the wall, look up and do a jump grab to the monkey bars. Swing across to the other side and drop. Walk into the alcove and look up for a hole in the ceiling. Do a jump grab to the hole and climb up.  As you walk out on the ledge, you hear the screech of one of the gold flying creatures, get out your Uzis and shoot as it flees down from the ceiling.

Take a long running jump from the walkway in the centre of the room to the other walkway on the other side. Look for an alcove high on the wall at one end of the walkway. Climb up and go up a ramp. A sitting bench and a sleeping skeleton warn of danger.  As you walk out to the edge of the ledge, you hear the screech of one of the gold flying creatures and you suddenly start losing health rapidly. What to do? The gold flying creature is attacking the statue of Lara. Drop back down into the hole and run out to be able to get a shot at the gold flying creature. If you are quick, you can shoot the gold flying creature before it gets to the statue of Lara. Return back up the ramp. Shoot the sitting bench.

Top ledges:

Now jump to the large platform in the middle of the room. This wakes up the skeleton, do a roll and wait for the skeleton to jump to the platform, and then blast him to make him fall. Do a standing jump grab to one of the switches on the pillar. Fall down and make your way back up the ramp. Load up on health. Pull the other switch.

 

One switch triggers a gold flying creature. Land after pulling the switch, then drop to the bottom floor.  Shoot the gold flying creature with the Uzis before it can do more Damage to the statue of Lara.

Repeat the trip back up to the top of the room.

Jump to the ledge with the sitting bench and shoot it. Pick up a well-deserved medi-pack. Enter the alcove with the small hole in the wall and a sleeping skeleton. Of course, it wakes up. Lure the skeleton out to the ledge, then run past it into the alcove, roll and start blasting on the skeleton to push it over the edge. Reach into the hole and pick up the Ornate Handle. Make your way to the other side of the room and the alcove with the other small hole. Reach in and pull out the Hathor Effigy.

Combine the Ornate Handle and the Hathor Effigy using the Inventory to create the Portal Guardian. Use the Action key to place the Portal Guardian on the ornate stand by the door. The door opens. Enter the hall. Not another skeleton! Lure him out to the platform and knock him off the ledge. Enter the door and shoot the sitting bench around the corner, pick up Uzi clips. Enter the room with the throne.

Room with the throne:

Lara tries out the throne for size. What a mistake to make! This summons two of Cleopatra's guards which appear to be quite immune to bullets, grenades or anything. You can kill them if you use a lot of explosive ammo. You can run back into the hall where you last saw the skeleton to catch your breath and gulp medi-packs. Run and jump to avoid the electric bolts that the guards throw at you.

Killing the Guards!

You can kill the guards with any weapons...even pistols...just takes a lot of ammo. OR I found an easier way to kill these guards with my normal pistols. Just go into the room with the closed door where you came from. Now the Guard will start moving. Run by him and start shooting. He will sit down and try to shoot again, but just run past him and roll over. He will slowly turn.

Repeat this until he is dead. Not too hard. When one guard is dead.  Go back to the alley with the closed door to lure the other one. Now you can take the breastplate and the shoe thing without being shot the whole time.

OR

Once the Guards are "up and about", Lara runs back to the Entrance doorway to the Throne Room (where she entered). With her back against the wall, one Guard will come as close as possible...not very...and repeatedly throw lightening bolts which will be entirely blocked by the stairs.

Meanwhile, Lara contentedly and safely discharges her 45's repeatedly into the Guard. When one dies, Lara's got to go back into the room a little ways..."lure" the other Guard to the bottom of the stairs...and repeat the procedure. He's toast too. Run into each room with a long box and pull out the Breastplate and the Left Greave. Fall down the hole in the floor near the throne. Continue down the hall.

You must have found all of the Armour of Horus to exit this area.

End of Level

Secrets: 1 (Total 54 out of 70)

Movie.

Lara returns to the home of Jean Yves in Alexandria. But the lights are off, a chair overturned, and on his desk is a note pinned to the desk with a knife.

Lara reads....

Congratulations, you've survived to another day. I trust that you now have all the Armour. Jean Yves shall be escorting us to Cairo. Not entirely of his own free will, I admit.  A simple trade - his life for the Armour of Horus!! Do not take too long thinking it over!  Yours, apologetic, Werner. Three helicopters with the symbol of a king? Fly across the desert.  A convoy of trucks and Von Croy's car drive across the desert at night. Locusts swarm the convoy and Von Croy. Von Croy is taken over by a demon, and emerges from the locusts with red beady eyes. Lara follows on her motorcycle and pulls into Cairo, driving past burning helicopters.