STELLA'S CLASSIC TOMB RAIDER 1 WALKTHROUGH

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Guides begin here.

Introductory Cinematic: In the desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico, a nuclear test unearths an odd, metallic disk, which flies through the air and lands in the foreground. In the smoldering crater where the bomb went off we see a broken container, now crackling with electricity. It begins to move with a hollow, mechanical sound, revealing a woman trapped inside.

The scene shifts to the dimly lit lobby of the Imperial Hotel in Calcutta, India. Here we have our first glimpse of our heroine sitting on a divan reading a magazine. A man in jeans and a red shirt approaches and she tosses the magazine onto the coffee table. We see a quick close-up of the cover: "Adventurer! Lara Stamps Out Big Foot."

The man turns out to be Larson, a hired man working for Jacqueline Natla, who approaches Lara about a job.*

Starting Inventory: Pistols (unlimited ammo), compass.
Kills: 14  Items: 7
Save Crystals: 1 (Saturn and PlayStation only)  Secrets: 3

LEVEL MAP by VGCartography (used with permission)

Caves PS1 Video Walkthrough by Eldincy

Cinematic: Intrepid explorer Lara Croft follows a Peruvian guide across a snow-covered plateau. They approach a set of enormous stone doors. Lara throws a grappling hook to a ledge above, climbs to the top of the doors and presses a secret button to open the doors. A pack of wolves charge out from the darkness and attack the guide. Lara slides down the rope, cutting it as she falls, then draws her pistols to dispatch the wolves—too late, unfortunately, for the guide. She musters her resolve and enters the caves. The adventure begins. . . . (This cinematic, titled "Snow," is also available on my YouTube channel.)

OBJECTIVES: Make your way through the caves down to a door. Enter and proceed, through some complications of course, to the level exit.

Follow the paw prints in the snow straight ahead. Shortly you'll reach an area with slits in the walls. This is a dart trap. Keep running and Lara should get past the darts with little or no damage.

As you round the corner, the camera view shifts up and to the left to show where you need to go next, but before climbing up there do a little exploring: Continue straight ahead into a rectangular cave with an angled block in the far left corner. Note the opening in the wall above this block. The ledge is a little too high to grab, so use the block to give Lara a boost. Grab onto the back of it, pull up and slide down the face. Press Jump and Action as you slide to grab the ledge (as shown in this set of screenshots). Or, stand Lara in front of the block with her back to the angled surface, then backflip onto the block and hold Jump and Action to bounce off the slope and grab the ledge. Pull up into the small cave, where you'll find SECRET #1, a small medi pack.

BAT CAVES: Jump down and go to the right to the raised opening where Lara looked up before. Climb up over the rocks and through that opening. Draw pistols as you move into the cave, to take advantage of the game's auto-aim feature. Three bats fly in from the caves ahead, and Lara will probably spot them before you do. As soon as her arms move to aim, press Action to shoot. When the bats are dead, head into the cave on the left.

In the far right corner is a low snowdrift below an opening high on the wall. Stand on this drift facing the wall below the opening and sidestep to the left as far as possible. This raises Lara up a bit. Don't try to jump up; just stand close to the wall and press Action + Forward to grab the ledge and pull up. (These screenshots show how.) Kill another bat in the cave above and pick up SECRET #2, a small medi pack.

CAVE LINED WITH GREENERY & DOOR WITH SWITCH: Drop or jump down and return to the big cave where you shot the 3 bats earlier. Turn left and proceed to a cave lined with greenery. Go down into the opening to the left. Keep descending to the bottom, where you'll find a closed door. Use the Action key to pull the switch next to the door to open it. Enter and kill the bat that swoops down. The wooden gate on the right does not open. Instead head to the far left corner and climb up through the opening there.

ROOM WITH WOODEN BRIDGES & WOLVES: Follow the passageway to a landing above a room with two wooden bridges. Two wolves lurk below. They're asleep when you arrive but will rouse and begin to pace as you approach the edge. You can shoot them from above if you're patient or hop down and take them on.

When you've taken care of both wolves, head for the far corner of the room. Either follow the perimeter, using the bridges to get from side to side. Or, after dropping down into the area below the bridges, walk to the second bridge, stand below it near its middle, jump straight up to grab it and then pull up. Or, climb onto the ledge above the alcove with the mummy. Then cross the second bridge. Go through the doorway in the corner of the room beyond the second bridge.

BEAR PIT: A bit farther on is a gap with a bear lurking below. If you want to, you can easily kill the bear from above. Draw pistols and Let Lara get a target lock on it, then hold the Action key to fire. As long as you keep holding Action, Lara will continue to target the bear and shoot at it whenever it comes into range. When it's dead, safety drop down into the room below.

NOTE: To safety drop, stand near the edge, turn around so Lara's back is toward the open area and then hold Action and tap Back. Lara will drop and hang from the edge. Release Action and she'll drop to the ground. Doing this gives her a shorter distance to fall, so she will not lose health as she would by just running or jumping off the edge.

After dropping down into the bear pit, continue through the one door leading out. A bat will emerge as you enter, and another bat swoops down as you go a little farther into the room. Next you'll come to an area with a small medi pack on the ground and a different-looking tile in the floor next to it. Stepping on this tile opens the door. It closes fairly quickly, so position Lara so she's facing the door, step on the tile, then run through.

You're now back in the room with the bridges. Climb back up and retrace your steps to the gap with the dead bear below. Take a running jump across that gap.

NOTE: Now is a good time to learn that jumping technique if you didn't get it in the training level. Stand on one of the two slightly raised areas at the edge. Walk Lara to the edge, then take a single hop back. Press Forward and Jump, and Lara will run two steps then take off into the air on the third. She'll land safely on the other side. If you set up jumps this way, Lara will never run off the edge and almost never miss a landing.

On the other side of the gap there's a save crystal in the console versions. Behind the columns to the left of the stairs, you'll find another small medi pack. Retrieve it and descend the stairs, guns drawn. A pair of wolves waits at the bottom. (Try side- or backflipping while shooting to avoid taking too much damage.) Enter the room at the bottom of the stairs.

ROOM WITH GREENERY & TIMED DOOR: Note the vegetation-covered ledge on the left side of the room. The greenery conceals an opening, but the ledge is too high to reach from the floor. So climb up on either side—onto the landing with the pillars on the left or the stone ledge on the right—and take a running jump to the ledge with the greenery. (This sequence is shown in this set of screenshots.) Inside is SECRET #3, a large medi pack. Exit, drop down and head for the opposite right corner of the room. In an alcove under the stairs is a small medi pack.

On the ledge to the right of the big carved exit doors is the switch that opens them. The doors are timed to close after a short time. Climb up, throw the switch, then flip to the left (Jump + Left together) onto the low wall below. Sidestep to the left edge of the wall, then flip left again onto the platform with the door. Run through before it closes.

Continue forward and around the corner. Take the steps at a run to avoid the dart trap. Draw pistols near the top, because a wolf waits in the room above. It's lurking in the alcove on the left as you enter. When you've taken care of it, step on the break-away tiles at the center of the room to fall through to the room below.

LEVEL EXIT: You're now in a long room above a wide hallway. Below, at one end of this hallway you can see the wooden gate you couldn't get through at the beginning of the level. The long hallway is lined with dart traps and the exit doors are closed. So, don't drop down yet. (NOTE: If you do drop down, you can climb back up using the rocks to the left of the exit doors.)

Go to the far end of the room and turn left. Take a running jump across the gap to the opposite side. Turn left and head toward the large medi pack on the ground. Another wolf comes out of the room ahead. Kill it, pick up the health pack and continue forward into the alcove from which the wolf emerged. Use the switch there to open the exit doors. Leave the switch room, turn right and go through the first opening overlooking the exit. Hop down, slide to the ground and go through the big doors to end the level.

†UPDATE HISTORY: 4/14/07 - First update since I began tracking page updates. Added various screenshots, including screens for all secrets. Revised several sections for clarity.
10/31/10 - Clarified the description of how to get secret #2. Thanks to Althalus for pointing that out.
4/12/12 - Video transcripts and links to YouTube videos added.
12/4/13 - Changed notes about save crystals throughout the walkthrough to refer to Saturn as well as PlayStation, thanks to a reminder from damon.
2/5/24 - Added VGCartography's level maps, with permission. Follow them on Twitter/X, YouTube, and DeviantArt for more fantastic game maps.

CINEMATIC TRANSCRIPT: Note that I have not attempted to reproduce Larson's bad Texas accent in text, which should hopefully make things easier for those using online translators. ;)

Larson: What's a man got to do to get that kind of attention from you?

Lara: It's hard to say, exactly, but you seem to be doing fine.

Larson: Well, great. Though truth is that it ain't me me that wants you.

Lara: Oh?

Larson: No, Ms. Jacqueline Natla does. From Natla Technologies. You know, creator of all things bright and beautiful. Ha ha!

As he speaks, Larson sets a laptop computer on the table in front of her. He opens the lid and a woman appears on the screen.

Natla: Seal it, Larson.

Larson: Ma'am.

Natla: Feast your eyes on this, Lara. How does that make your wallet rumble?

Natla gestures as a shower of paper money floats down around her.

Lara: I'm sorry. I only play for sport.

Natla: Then you'll like a big park. . . Peru. . . Vast mountain ranges to cover, sheer walls of ice, rocky crags, savage winds. . . and there's this little trinket: an age-old artifact of mystical powers buried in the unfound tomb of Qualopec. That's my interest. You could leave tomorrow. Are you busy tomorrow?

A smile begins to spread across Lara's face.

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 © 1998- - Stellalune ( ). 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 Ingrid G. for the timed door tip, to Ian T. for various suggestions, including the locations of the save crystals in the Saturn and PlayStation games, and to damon for reminding me that the Sega Saturn game also has save crystals. All TR1 screenshots were made using Glidos and Fraps. 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.

Stella's Tomb Raider Site: tombraiders.net.

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