LEVEL 29: MENKAURE'S PYRAMID
Secrets: 1*
CAVE: Pick up the Uzi clips (2 sets) to the left and right of the starting position. Climb up the blocks to the trapdoor in the ceiling. Jump to grab the switch at the edge of the trapdoor to open it. (This works best if you stand Lara directly under the switch facing out toward the cave. Then jump straight up, pressing Action to grab.) Climb through the trapdoor to the desert above.
DESERT NEAR THE PYRAMID: A gigantic red scorpion attacks almost immediately. A few shotgun blasts will take it down, but try not to let it get too close. In addition to causing damage, its sting is poisonous. Head downhill to the intersection of paths. Off to the left (south), there's another giant scorpion attacking a soldier. The soldier is friendly enough if you don't harm him, but if you do kill him you'll get some extra revolver ammo. Backtrack to the intersection, then go left (west). Pick up a large medipak ahead on the left. Then come back to the intersection again. Turn left (north) toward the deep pit.
Take a running jump across the pit on the left side. Follow the path between the rocks. There's another giant scorpion around the corner to the right. Kill it and continue to the break in the wall on the north side. You'll need to cross another chasm to get to the base of the pyramid. Take a running jump across the pit on the right side to grab the ledge. Pull up. Now you'll have to kill another giant scorpion, along with one of those huge nasty beetles.
AT THE BASE OF THE PYRAMID: You'll notice some enticing flat areas on the face of the pyramid just begging you to climb them. Wait for just a little while and you'll be able to save yourself a bit of backtracking. For now, head to the right (east) side of the pyramid, toward another deep excavation pit with a building on the other side.
BUILDING WITH GUARD UNDER SIEGE: To get across the pit, you can use a complicated series of jumps across the angled blocks (as in the second secret in the City of the Dead level). Or, to simplify things, stand Lara at the northwest rim of the pit, where the rim juts out over the pit in a small square ledge. Face south and take a running jump to grab the back of the angled block ahead (as shown in this screenshot). Pull up, slide down the back of the block and jump to land on a flat spot ahead. Kill another giant beetle off to the left (east).
Save your game before entering the building. The outcome of the next fight will determine whether or not you get a secret later in the game.
(BUG NOTE: A bug has also been reported here in which, after the cut scene, Lara loses the ability to move her arms and so can't climb or draw weapons. There are some suggestions for avoiding this bug at the bottom of the page.)
Use the Action key to open the door. Inside you'll find a guard being attacked by a giant scorpion. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to kill the scorpion before it can kill the guard. In order to avoid targeting the guard, run into the room and around to the left side of the scorpion. Then start firing. You'll want to use a fairly powerful weapon so the huge insect won't have time to kill its prey. (The bug mentioned above seems to be triggered by using the shotgun, so try the revolver or Uzis.) If you succeed, a movie plays:
Cut scene: The scorpion flings the guard against the wall as Lara, now using pistols, finishes it off. She kneels by the injured guard.
Guard: Allah be praised. For a moment, I thought I was dead for sure. Please, for your own safety, take these keys and hide in the pyramid of Menkaure. Save yourself from these abominations!
If you check your inventory now, you'll see that you have not only THE GUARD'S KEYS but also the ARMORY KEY, which you'll use later to access the secret in the KHUFU'S QUEEN'S PYRAMIDS level. If the guard is killed in the fight with the scorpion, you can pick up the GUARD'S KEYS, but you do not get the ARMORY KEY.
Go around to each of the corner alcoves and pick up regular and wideshot shotgun shells and 2 small medipaks before exiting the building.
The excavation pit on the right (east) prevents you from getting to the two smaller pyramids. (You will get there in the next level.) For now, go back across the pit on the left: Jump up to grab the edge of the sandy colored rock outcropping on the right side of the pit. Then traverse to the left around the corner and across the pit. When you can't go any farther to the left, let go and slide onto a flat spot near the far (north) edge of the pit.
CLIMBING THE PYRAMID: (The following sequence is illustrated in these screenshots. The numbers in this text refer to the numbers on those screenshots.) (1) Walk up onto the low, flat block at the base of the pyramid on the right (east) end. (2) From here you can get to another flat spot one tier above. (3) At the left side of this flat spot, climb onto another flat spot on the tier above. Kill the giant beetle. (4) Now you'll need to take a diagonal standing jump up and to the left to the next flat spot. (Jump from the middle of the ledge at the left side.) At this point, you'll be on a long, flat spot on the third tier from the ground. (5) Take a running jump along the bottom edge of this flat spot toward the left (west) side of the pyramid. (6) You'll land on a slope and slide down to a long flat area two tiers below. At this point you'll need to kill another giant beetle. Now start working your way up the left side.
(7) Walk to the left end of this flat spot. (8) From here you can climb up two tiers. (9) Climb up three more tiers at the right side of this ledge. Now you should be level with the doorsill. You may be able to kill a giant beetle lurking in the doorway. If not, you'll need to do it when you get there. (10) Take a running jump along the bottom edge of this flat spot to land near the doorway.
(NOTE: For running jumps along the pyramid, line up each jump so Lara takes off just a tiny bit before the edge, or she'll nick her foot on it and end up doing a standing jump instead. Also, be sure not to press Action while in the air, which shortens the jump.)
You're at the door now and, if you've followed this walkthrough, you've got the GUARD'S KEYS. First unlock the door, since you'll need to make a speedy exit in a moment. Now take a brief detour for a secret. (This sequence is shown in these screenshots.) Hop down onto the flat spot below the right side of the door (left side if you're facing out from the pyramid). Take a diagonal standing jump up to the next flat spot. (Jump from the middle of the ledge at the right side. Or, if this particular jump is too difficult, instead take a running jump along the bottom edge of the lower flat spot to land on another flat spot on the same tier a bit farther on.) Kill the giant beetle that flies up at you. Then turn back toward the doorway and climb up two tiers (three if you made the alternate jump).
Now you should be on the tier above the door. Take a standing jump over the slope to the ledge on the right side of the door, where you'll find a small medipak. Take a running jump to the ledge on the other side of the door. Pick up the REVOLVER (or ammo if you already have the weapon), which is secret #1 (65/70). When you do, a swarm of beetles comes out of the pyramid. To escape them, drop down and run through the doors into the pyramid. The beetles will follow but only as far as the load-in to the next level.
BUG NOTE: To avoid and/or remedy the bug in the BUILDING WITH GUARD UNDER SIEGE (see above), try these:
The bug is apparently triggered by using the shotgun to kill the scorpion. Avoid this by using another weapon.
Another player found that holding the draw-weapons key down while the cut scene played also prevented the bug from being triggered.
If the bug is already activated and Lara will not draw weapons, try selecting the crossbow from the inventory screen. Then select a flare from the inventory screen. When you return to play, Lara should draw the crossbow and after that she should function normally.
Or, select the binoculars from the inventory screen. Lara should be able to do this as usual. Then, when you put them away, she should function normally. (This method was suggested by a PlayStation user. I'm not sure if it works on the PC.)
Special thanks to the players who posted these on the tombraiders.com forum.
*NOTE: There are 70 secrets in the entire game. These are marked "(x/70)" in this walkthrough. To check your progress in-game, press Pause and choose Statistics.
Copyright © 2000 - Stellalune (e-mail stella@tombraiders.net). Special thanks are given to the participants in the alt.games.tombraider newsgroup, without whom some parts of this walkthrough couldn't have been written. Thanks also to Shane, Kas D. and Dale F. for their help on this level. Feel free to copy, distribute and quote this walkthrough, but please include this credit line so people can send me their corrections, comments and suggestions. Also, if you'd like to offer this on your own web site, please read and follow the instructions here.
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