LEVEL 22: BIO-RESEARCH FACILITY |
Updated: 11/9/13(†) |
Items: 7 health items, 3 Security Passes
Weapons & Ammo: 16 ammo items
Enemies: Mutant plants and creatures, guards/Cabal soldiers
Upgrades: lower body
FIRST GREENHOUSE: Go straight through the door to enter the greenhouse. Go down the steps and talk to the man standing near the fountain.
Dialogue - Dr. Muller: The scientist reveals more information about the Cabal. He says they plan to bring about a new order of life on earth, starting with the revival of the Sleeper. Eckhardt plans to use the Sleeper to breed a new race of Nephilim. In return for their help, he's promised the other Cabal members immortality. Lara is a bit skeptical, but Muller insists. He's convinced Eckhardt's plan will work, but he does hint that their previous experiments weren't completely successful. Apparently his colleague Boaz created a "Proto-Nephilim" that turned out to be not an angel but an abomination. Muller then spritzes Lara with pesticide and sneaks away.
Step into the fountain and pull on one of the gargoyles to open a secret passage in the corner to the right of where you entered. Go through the passage, climb the ladder, pick up Vector and Mag clips and pull the switch to open the exit. Drop down and return to the greenhouse.
Follow the path straight ahead. Where it turns a corner toward the exit, there's a Viper clip lying on the walkway. Pick it up and quickly get out of the way before the carnivorous plant can bite Lara. Step off the path into the undergrowth behind the spore-spitting pitcher plant. (In the PC game at least, these don't seem to do any harm.) Head back toward the corner of the room, where you'll find a Vector and Mag clip on the ground. Climb over the railing or go around and up the stairs to the airlock. Press the button and exit through the other door.
SECOND GREENHOUSE WITH MUTANT INCUBATION TANKS: A panoramic cut scene shows the layout of the area. One of the tanks bursts open releasing a mutant with long, knife-like claws and the ability to spit acid.
If you kill this mutant, 6 giant pillbug-like creatures enter through the chutes along the side walls. You can either kill them all, try and outrun them, or just don't trigger them by avoiding that first mutant instead of killing it.
NOTE: You may be able to trap the clawed mutant by taking advantage of a minor bug. This technique is described in a footnote below. If this doesn't work for you, or if you prefer not to cheat in any way, you'll need to kill all the mutants before exploring the area, or outrun the clawed mutant as you go.
The big door at the far end of the room doesn't open. You'll have to find another way out. But first get a few useful items: There are bandages in the bushes between the stairs and the sloping ledge to the right of the entrance (when facing it) and ammo on the ledges spanning the length of the room. First, go to the far end of the room and up the set of stairs on the right. Follow the ledge back toward the entrance. At the very end you'll find a Mag clip. Slide down to the ground and run back along the length of the room to the far left corner. Go up the steps. Follow the ledge back toward the entrance, picking up one Mag clip near the middle and another Mag clip near the end. Backtrack along the ledge to the middle and jump straight up to grab the silver drainpipe. Monkey swing up the pipe to the top and drop onto a narrow platform. (The path from the entrance to the drainpipe is shown in this screenshot.)
Activate walk mode and follow the narrow walkway to the right. Turn the first valve. Now head for the other side of the walkway. When you reach the broken section, use short hops (Walk + Jump) to clear the gaps. Continue to the second valve and turn it. This opens a trapdoor at the bottom of the tank from which the live mutant emerged i.e., the one farthest from the entrance on the left, if Lara's back is to the entrance).
If you climb down the broken ladder and drop from the end, Lara will be right in front of the tank with the trapdoor, but she'll also lose about half her health, more if the mutant is waiting at the bottom of the ladder. If you have full health and medipacks to spare, then go for it. Otherwise, return to the silver drainpipe and climb down the way you came. Follow the ledge to the right and go down the stairs. The tank with the opening is the one just ahead. Drop through and fall into a pool of green, slimy water.
ROOM WITH POOL & ELEVATED WALKWAYS: Climb out of the first pool and follow the passage to a slope above another pool. Stand at the center of the ramp where there's a strip of decorative grating on the floor. Step off and slide forward, jumping at the end of the slope to grab the ladder ahead. Climb up and take the small medipack. Go through the door, follow the steamy hallway to the end and go through another door.
Alternatively, if you miss grabbing the ladder after sliding down the ramp, you'll splash down in the pool below. Swim through the hole in the grating. Then swim up and right to a ladder where you can climb out of the water.
Whichever way you enter, you'll probably want to avoid the huge fish-mutant in the pool. In my game at least, it didn't hurt Lara at all, but I don't know if this is true for all versions.
There's also a guard on patrol here. Depending on where you enter, he may be above or below you. Kill him and then head for the vine-covered wall in the corner. This will be ahead and to the left if you climbed out of the pool, or below if you came in through the door. Climb up the vines to reach the ledge high above. You'll need to climb up, then diagonally up and to the right, then straight up again. (These screenshots show where to go.)
The door ahead doesn't open. So climb the ladder to the high walkway. Use the switch to move a small platform toward the far end of the room. Turn to face out over the room and then take a running jump down to the ledge below on the left with the square opening and ladder leading down. (Or, if this jump is too difficult, return to the bottom of the ladder, but instead of climbing back down the vines, safety drop to the walkway below, and then make your way over to the ledge with square hole and ladder.) Beyond the ladder, on the other side of the round planter, you'll find Viper and Mag clips plus some health pills.
Climb down the ladder (or safety drop through the opening to get down faster) and turn so the ladder is on Lara's right. Vault over the railing onto the landing below. Turn around and go down the stiars to the fat pipe running along the wall below the nasty looking root. Pick up a Mag clip and turn the valve. This shuts off the steam leaking from a pipe on the opposite wall, which would otherwise prevent you from climbing up there. Walk back along the fat pipe and jump to the walkway.
Go straight ahead up two flights of stairs. Follow the walkway around to the left to the broken section. Take a running jump across and then sidestep along the narrow ledge. Climb the pipe that was previously impassable due to the leaking steam. At the top, press left and up together to grab the ledge on the left. Traverse to the left, then around the corner and pull up. (This screenshot illustrates the climb.)
NOTE: Elif suggested avoiding the following climb by taking a running jump from this ledge to grab the railing near the exit. I tried this a number of times but was unable to do it. Here's a short video of the sequence, thanks to RardRaider.
Now you'll need to make a longer climb up the vines to the top of the room. (This is a little tricky, so you may want to refer to my series of screenshots.) First, position Lara facing the left side of the section of wall with climbable vines. That way you'll have less distance to cover when actually making the climb. Rather than grabbing onto the vines at ground level, jump straight up to grab them, again shortening the overall climb. Climb straight up a short distance. Then climb diagonally up and to the left. At the first bend in the ceiling, climb to the left as far as Lara will go. Then begin climbing straight upward along the angled ceiling.
Continue climbing straight upward. The ceiling bends again, but Lara has no trouble climbing the inverted surface. Just keep pressing Forward and she'll do it automatically. When she reaches the top of the celing, she'll turn around automatically as well. Just continue to press Forward. When she reaches the metal track on the ceiling and stops, press Action to let go and drop onto the platform below. As long as you moved the platform earlier by using the switch, and moved onto the left section of vines at the start of the climb, Lara should land squarely on the platform.
Cross the walkway and climb down two ladders to a blue door with a button. Press it to open the airlock. Go in and press the yellow button to open the other door.
ROOM WITH MUSHROOMS & VALVE PUZZLE: Go to the right. A brief cut scene shows a huge vine pulling the exit doors shut and holding them fast. Climb down the ladder and head toward the raised walkway. Underneath you'll find a clip for the Mag Vega. Go up the stairs to the valves. Each of the 5 valves is labeled with an arcane symbol. The diagrams on the bulletin board to the left show different chemical mixtures you can make by turning different valves. Push the table away from the bulletin board to reveal a clue. The diagram with the red X shows a bad mixture for plants. Turn the valves corresponding to the symbols shown in that diagram: valves 1, 2 and 4 from left to right. Now pull the lever to the right. This feeds the bad mixture to the giant vine, killing it and opening the door. Exit there.
Cut scene: A flyby of the new area. Most important is the dead guard with the keycard on one of the higher walkways.
BIG ROOM WITH GLASS GREENHOUSE AND CATWALKS: There's a guard on patrol off to the right. Kill him and take his BOTANICAL LOW ACCESS PASS. Beyond his post in the far right corner is a short hallway with 3 card readers. This is the exit. You'll need three botanical access cards to get out. You've already got one.
Go to the raised plant bed in the middle of the room and climb the low wall to get up there. Climb the ladder to the walkway above. Now you're on level 2. Go to the left, and up two flights of stairs to level 4. (There's only a small landing here on level 3.) Here you'll find a blue door, which only opens from the other side, and a series of small blocks arranged so you can jump across the greenhouse roof.
This series of jumps is shown in the screenshot here. First, take a short hop from the first block to the second. Jump from the middle of the second block down to the third. You may be able to shoot the guard on patrol above and to the left from here. If not, just keep going; you'll get him later. Jump from the middle of the third block to the fourth. Walk to the edge of the fourth block and jump to grab the walkway ahead, just to the left of the railing. Pull up.
If you miss any of these jumps, try to land on the roof facing uphill. Then slide down the roof and press Action to grab the edge. Traverse to the left or right, depending on where you slip, and climb down the vertical support column on the front of the greenhouse. Walk along the narrow ledge to the corner and pick up the bandages (shown in this screenshot). Jump into the pool, swim to the steps and climb out. Then retrace your steps up the ladder and stairs to the blocks to try again. You may even want to do this once on purpose just to get the pickup.
When you have crossed the roof and reached the walkway (also on level 4), head around to the left. Shoot that guard if you didn't get him before. When you come to the circular clump of plants, Lara says she's not strong enough to make the long jump to the next walkway. Instead, head left. Turn left again at the big tree, go to the blue door and open it. This isn't necessary, but it saves you from having to jump across the blocks again if you fall later on. From the blue door, return past the big tree and continue straight on to the far wall. Follow the walkway around to the left until you come to a gap.
Take a running jump across the gap to grab the opposite edge. Pull up. This gives Lara the lower-body strength upgrade she needs to get across the other big gap. Get the large health pack and then jump back across the gap. (This time you won't need to grab, since Lara can jump farther.)
NOTE: If you miss the first jump across the gap, you can either reload or continue forward along the lower walkway. Vault over the rail at the end and continue up the stairs to the blue door and blocks. If you opened the blue door, you can go through there instead of having to jump across the blocks.
Once Lara has the upgrade, return along the level 4 walkways, past the big tree, to the circular clump of plants. Then face the wide gap that Lara couldn't jump before. Line up the jump carefully so she runs and takes off on the left side, where the broken edge juts out a little farther. Run, jump, grab the other edge and pull up. (This screenshot shows the spot.)
Go to the left and up the stairs to level 5. Follow the walkway all the way to the end. Climb the vine-covered pole, traverse to the right and pull up on level 6.
Cut scene: Lara sees Dr. Muller working on a computer. Eckhardt and Gunderson approach Muller demanding to know what's going on. Muller tells them it's not his fault; the power is down everywhere. Gunderson takes over at the computer and soon has things under control. Then Boaz arrives with news of problems down in the Sanatorium. She confesses that she didn't kill the Proto-Nephilim as Eckhardt ordered. Boaz says that because the Proto is half Nephilim, it can only be killed with Eckhardt's Periapt Shard. Eckhardt is not too thrilled about this. He sends Gunderson to clean up Boaz's mess and, as punishment, feeds her to one of Muller's "creations." Joachim Karel, the blond in the red scarf, has nothing to say at this point.
After the cut scene, continue forward to the dead guard near the plant. Pick up his BOTANICAL HIGH ACCESS PASS and the Viper clip near the end of the walkway. Then return to the broken edge and drop to the level below (level 5). Return to the other end of the level 5 walkway and down the stairs.
Go to the very end of the walkway. (You're now on level 4. The spot where you grabbed after making the very long jump is on Lara's right.) You may be able to shoot the guard on the level below from here. Hang from the edge of the walkway and traverse to the right. Grab the vines on the brick wall and climb down to the stairs. Go up the stairs, shoot the guard if you didn't do so before, and get his BOTANICAL MEDIUM ACCESS PASS.
Return down the stairs (to level 3) and follow the walkway toward the glass greenhouse. Pick up a Mag clip at the end. Climb down the broken ladder and drop to the ground.
BUG NOTE: Twice while playing this level I experienced a bug where the guard carrying the medium access pass would die without my doing anything. When this happened I found the card on the ground below the walkway near the small lamppost. It was difficult to spot on the ground, but the hand icon indicated it was there. Another player recently wrote in about this. He spent a long time hunting for the card and finally found it on the high ledge shown in this screenshot. So apparently there isn't much logic as to where it ends up. If it's not obvious, keep looking, and you should find it eventually. If not, you can download a PC/Mac save file or use the PS2 level-skip cheat to get past this point.
When you have all three pass cards, head for the far right corner of the room (i.e., to the right when Lara's back is to the entrance and she's facing the glass greenhouse). Go into the short hall and use the cards at the 3 card readers to open the exit.
NOTE: If you took advantage of the respirator bug in the Louvre Galleries level and have an extra respirator left, you might want to use it now. Or, you can save it for the underwater areas in later levels.
DARK AREA WITH STEAM PIPES & POISON GAS: Go down the stairs to a dark, greenish room. Continue down the short flight of steps to the left. This area is full of poison gas, so move quickly. Pick up 2 Vector clips—one near the right wall just before the small pool, the other in the far left corner against the wall. (The locations are shown in this screenshot.)
Drop into the water and swim through to another small room. Climb out on the ledge and pull the small box under the hole in the walkway above. Climb onto the box and pull up through the opening onto the walkway. The door is jammed. So search the lockers to find bandages and health pills. Then hop back in the water and swim back to the poison gas room. Climb out of the water, return up the short flight of steps and then cross the elevated walkway to the far end. Enter the first airlock and press the button to exit on the other side. Go left into another airlock.
Cut scene: Kurtis traps Lara inside the airlock to keep her from wreaking more havoc while he sorts out a few things. Before he takes off, Lara makes sure he sees the Periapt Shard she took from him at the Louvre. Turnabout is fair play. ;) And now he'll be sure to return.
†UPDATE HISTORY: 1/16/07 - Added info on the useful bug for trapping the mutant (below). Also made a few minor changes to simplify certain sections and added more screenshots for clarity.
10/19/11- Added more info to the bug note about the missing medium access pass, thanks to a tip from Donal.
11/9/13 - Added link to shortcut video from RardRaider.
USEFUL BUG: To deal with the clawed mutant you encounter in the second greenhouse, run to the far end of the room and go up either set of stairs onto one of the ledges spanning the length of the room. Stand in any of the spots where the ledge juts out in a little semi-circular planter, or where the greenery texture grows out over the edge of the ledge. The best spots seem to be near the end of each long ledge where the greenery grows out and down the slope. Wait for the mutant to follow Lara. Then just before it reaches her, turn to face out over the room, step off the edge and slide down to the floor. If the bug works, the mutant will try to follow Lara but end up walking in mid-air, as shown in this screenshot. The mutant seems to imitate Lara, but it can't manage to slide as she does. So do not jump off the ledge, or the mutant will most likely jump down too. You may need to try this a few times in different places to make it work, but once the mutant is stuck, it will stay in that spot while you explore at your leisure. Special thanks to Peder for this strategy.
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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. Thanks also to Elif, Peder and Divakar for help with this 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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