LEVEL 9: LOUVRE STORM DRAINS | Updated: 3/5/09(†) |
Items: 2 health items
Weapons & Ammo: 4 ammo items
Enemies: rats
Upgrades: upper body
IMPORTANT: There's a serious bug in the Macintosh version of the game near the middle of this level. I highly recommend patching your game to version 1.0.1 (Build 46) before starting this level if you haven't already done so. For more information, see the note at the bottom of the page.
At the start of the level, your notebook is updated. The new entry just says, "Get into the Louvre." Also, there are several rats in this level. I haven't mentioned every one, since most of the rodents don't bother you. Save your ammo unless one of them is actually biting Lara.
SMALL HUB AT START: Follow the tunnel forward to a shallow pool. Pick up the chocolate bar on the ground to the left. (I guess fugitives can't be too particular about where they get their snacks.) Go up the stairs just ahead and get a large health pack. The door here doesn't open so return downstairs. Hop down into the shallow water and follow the wider tunnel. Enter the narrow passage on the left, which slopes downward. Wade into the water and swim forward to a small flooded room where several tunnels converge.
There are no other exits, so climb the ladder to a SMALL ROOM WITH A VALVE. Lara isn't strong enough to turn the valve yet. So, for now, follow the narrow hallway, get the Vector clip and continue through two open doors to another wider tunnel. Turn right and keep going to a hub where several wide tunnels meet.
HUB WITH VALVE CONTROLS (lower level): Avoid the deep hole in the center of the room. You can walk around the sloping rim, but if Lara falls into the hole she'll die. Notice the water falling from above. You need to do something about that. The valve monitoring station has various lights and dials which can't be manipulated, but it does display the state of various valves you'll be using soon. Go to the left and climb the vertical pipe. When Lara reaches the walkway above, traverse to the left and pull up onto it.
HUB WITH VALVE CONTROLS (middle level): Follow the walkway around the edge of the room. Use the switch to shut off a huge fan elsewhere. There's another valve on the other side of the gap in the walkway, but Lara still isn't strong enough to use it. Return to the vertical pipe and climb back down to the lower level. Go all the way around the edge of the room to the tunnel with the big curved pipe sticking out of it. Follow that tunnel away from the hub.
HUGE FAN: Near the end of this tunnel there's a short ladder on the right. (There's also a chute just beyond it that's too steep to climb.) Climb the short ladder to reach the fan you just turned off. Move the fan to gain an upper-body strength upgrade. Crawl underneath the blades and pick up V-packer shells. Continue forward to valve #1. Now that Lara's buffed, you can turn the valve. Do it. A brief cut scene shows the valve monitoring station. The third light from the left lights up green.
Return past the fan and vault over the railing into the wide tunnel. Go left to the hub. Go around the edge of the room and into the opposite tunnel. Follow it nearly to the end. Go through the passage on the left and continue to the small room where you were before.
SMALL ROOM WITH VALVE (again): Turn valve #2. The cut scene shows the second light from the right go on. Follow the narrow hallway back to the tunnel, turn right and return to the hub.
Go to the left and climb the vertical pipe again to reach the middle level of the hub. Walk across the black-and-yellow crossbeam and turn valve #3. Water fills the shaft below and the rightmost light on the panel lights up. Pick up the Desert Ranger clip lying on the walkway to the right. Ignore the ladder above for now. You'll return here in a little while. Instead, walk back out to the middle of the black-and-yellow crossbeam and drop from there into the pool below. (Be sure to drop from the middle of the beam; otherwise Lara will land in shallow water and die.)
NOTE: If you're playing the Macintosh game and have encountered the bug in which the pool does not fill with water after using valve #3, please refer to the note at the bottom of the page for possible fixes.
FLOODED TUNNELS: Surface to breathe and then swim down the long tunnel. It twists and turns in a few spots, but all the side passages are barred so you can't make a wrong turn. Just keep going until you reach the next room.
SECOND HUB AREA: Use the collapsed catwalk as a ladder to climb out of the pool. Follow the walkway to a break in the railing. Jump straight up to grab the horizontal pipe and shimmy out to the middle of the room. Drop onto the black-and-yellow crossbeam. Walk to the left and turn valve #4. The fourth light from the left on the valve monitoring panel turns green. The ladder near the valve leads nowhere, so return to the middle of the crossbeam and jump up to grab the pipe. Shimmy all the way across to the other side. Climb the bent catwalk to get up top. Follow the walkway around the room counterclockwise. Jump the gap where the walkway is broken.
NOTE: Unless you just want explore everywhere, don't bother going into the big pipe on the right. It's possible to crawl under the bars and slide down the ramp, but this dumps you way back near the fan where you got the strength upgrade. Then you have to backtrack all the way up to the top of the shaft where the water was falling.
Turn valve #5. The second light from the left on the valve monitoring panel turns green. Return along the catwalk, jumping the gap as you did before. Walk to the edge of the bent section where you climbed up. Jump forward to grab the next section of walkway and pull up. Go through the door and follow the hallway, picking up a M-V9 clip on the way. You emerge back at the top of the first hub.
HUB WITH VALVE CONTROLS (top level): Walk out onto the black-and-yellow crossbeam. Stand under the narrow pipe running across the shaft. Jump up to grab it, traverse all the way across and drop onto the small ledge near valve #6. When you turn the valve, the camera pans to the right showing that water is no longer gushing from the huge pipe sticking out of the wall there. Also, the leftmost light on the valve monitoring panel lights up green. (They should all be green at this point.)
Jump up and grab the narrow pipe once more. Climb hand over hand along the pipe and drop down onto the black-and-yellow beam. Walk to the far end and jump into the big pipe that was previously blocked by flowing water. Climb into the smaller pipe within, open the door and enter a new area.
POOL & FUEL TANKS: Lara says she smells oil. Keep that in mind. Safety drop to the walkway below. Now Lara needs to blow up one of the fuel tanks to get into the Louvre. (Apparently nobody told her it was reduced admission on Tuesdays.) The effect is basically the same, whichever tank you choose. (This screenshot shows the two viable targets.)
To blow up the right tank, follow the walkway along the edge of the pool and approach the large tank. Press Action to make Lara place the explosives. To blow up the left tank, swim across the pool and climb out using the ladder. Climb the ladder on the wall ahead and jump from the catwalk to the platform in front of the two tanks. Face the tank on the right and press Action. Lara places the explosives. (In either case, Lara says she'd better check the map to see if this is the right place, but it doesn't seem possible to actually access the map in your inventory.)
NOTE: You can take a shortcut here by exploiting a bug in the game. Choose the tank on the right. Press Action to place the explosives. Then continue to press Action repeatedly during and after the tank explosion. In the PlayStation game, Lara should survive the explosion unscathed. In the PC version, Lara will catch fire, but she won't immediately die. You should have enough time to run through the hole in the wall and continue running to the left then forward to the end of the level. When the next level loads, she'll be fine. I don't know if this works in the Macintosh game, and I highly recommend that you save your game before setting the explosives, just in case it doesn't work for you.
After setting the explosives, Lara says, "Dive, girl! Dive!" Immediately backflip into the water before the tank explodes. Stay underwater because there's burning fuel on the surface, and Lara will die instantly. Lara can swim during the cut scene that shows the explosion, but you may want to wait for it to finish so you can see where she's going. There are two openings on the left side of the pool. Swim through either one. If you go through the pipe nearest the fuel tanks, take the first left, the next right, then the next left. (If you go through the other pipe, swim straight ahead to a T intersection, then turn left.) Just beyond, the pipe slopes up out of the water. Run up the tunnel to the opening overlooking the flaming pool.
Depending on whether you blew up the right or left tank, the landscape here will be different. If the left tank exploded, there will be a lot of debris in the room with the pool. You can't cross all the way over on the big pipe, so instead safety drop from the opening to the walkway below. Turn left and climb onto the ledge ahead near the broken ladder. Stand on the curved piece of debris and jump straight up to grab the twisted length of pipe overhead. Shimmy along the pipe to cross the pool. At the end, let go to land on the bent end of the catwalk. Cross the catwalk, climb onto the fat pipe and walk across it to the opening you made. Drop into the room beyond. (These screenshots show where to climb.)
If the right tank exploded, the room is basically intact, though there are a few fires burning along the walkways. There are a couple of different ways to get out. (Both of these are shown on this page of screenshots). I found it easier to safety drop from the tunnel opening to the walkway below. Turn to face the pool then go to the left. Follow the walkway to the ladder, climb up and jump to the ledge in front of the left set of fuel tanks. From there, side flip to the left, taking care not to land in the fire in front of the hole in the wall.
Alternatively, you can safety drop from the tunnel opening to the walkway below. Turn to face the pool then go to the right. Climb the short ladder and cross the ledge. Climb down onto the ladder below then press Jump to backflip over the first flame. Avoid the second flame by climbing the ladder and crossing the walkway above. Safety drop from the other end. Watch out for the third flame as you go through the hole you made in the wall.
ENTERING THE LOUVRE: Head toward the left side of the dark room. Approach the gold doors to end the level.
†UPDATE HISTORY: 1/16/07 - Added info on the Macintosh bug, as well as the useful bug for skipping the last section of the level. Made a few other changes for clarity and expedience.
3/5/09 - Fixed a typo and attempted to clarify the climbing sequence following the turning of valve #6.
MACINTOSH BUG: The original Mac version of the game includes a bug in which the pool at the HUB WITH VALVE CONTROLS does not fill with water after using valve #3. So you cannot swim through the flooded tunnels to the next area and consequently cannot finish the level. In order to prevent this bug from occuring, either download and install the Macintosh version 1.0.1 patch OR disable Distance Fog under graphics settings in the menu that pops up when you insert the game CD. You must do one of these before turning valve #3 and triggering the bug. If it has already happened, you'll need to use the patch or disable Distance Fog, then reload an earlier save and play through that section again.
If you saved after triggering the bug and have no earlier save handy, you can download a Macintosh save from my TR6 savegame page. (That page includes a link to instructions in case you need them.)
This bug only happens in Build 42 of the Macintosh game. If you're not sure which version you have, check the lower left corner of the screen just before the main menu (where the game tells you to Press Any Key). The original release is Build 42; the v1.0.1 release, in which the bug has been fixed, is Build 46.
WAS THIS WALKTHROUGH HELPFUL? If not, I apologize and invite you to contact me with any questions. If you need help right away, I recommend the r/TombRaider subreddit. Other fan-run forums are listed at tombraiders.net/stella/community.html. If this site was useful, please consider supporting it financially or in other ways. For details, visit tombraiders.net/stella/support.html. As always, I welcome your corrections/suggestions. Thank you!
Copyright © 2003- - Stellalune (). I am eternally grateful to the members of the alt.games.tombraider newsgroup, whose contributions to this walkthrough are numerous. Thanks also to the developers of Fraps, the program used for all AOD screenshots. Special thanks to Boh, Rich and Kerrie from MacRaider for help with the Macintosh bug, and to Salla for the useful bug at the end of the level. Feel free to copy or print this walkthrough for personal use. By all means, share it with friends, but please include this credit line so people can send me their feedback. No part of this walkthrough may be reproduced on another site without permission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Follow this link for details about this site's advertising and privacy policy.
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