Aquatic Research Area - Chum Bucket to Climbable Pipes

If you're after the "Short Ration" achievement/trophy, you'll need to escape this area without feeding the Leviathan. However, I do recommend getting the strength upgrade and the remaining pickups before moving on. This walkthrough describes how to get 100% with or without the achievement.

After fully restoring the power, as shown in the previous section, climb the stairs to the catwalk above the center of the pool.

At the top, turn right and approach the metal bucket.

Pull it onto the square, gray pad on the floor.

Press the button...

...to move the bucket along a conveyor belt to the other end of the walkway.

Move to the left side of the bucket and push it into the small room so it's underneath the trapdoor in the ceiling.

Use the lever on the other side of the small room...

...to dump some nice, juicy chum into the bucket.

Now pull the full chum bucket back onto the gray pad. Lara gets an upper-body strength upgrade when you do this.

If you want the achievement/trophy, you don't need to bother with the chum bucket any more. Skip the next two screenshots and pick up the walkthrough below. (Or, if you don't care about 100% completion, and just want the achievement, you can head for the exit immediately. Skip to the last section.)

If you don't care about achievements and want an easier time reaching the exit, press the nearby button to move the full chum bucket along the conveyor to where it was before.

Then push the bucket onto the crane platform where it started. This will allow you to lower the chum into the water later on.

Return downstairs and follow the walkways back to the other side of the room, above the fenced-off section of pool. Climb the stairs to the landing with the small boxes. Then climb the ladder into the SECURITY ROOM above.

The 2 security stations on the right allow you to see a pair of levers elsewhere in the level.

Lever #1 is underwater in the big pool.

Lever #2 is in a side area we haven't visited yet. (Press Esc on keyboard or Roll on controller to disengage from the cameras.)

Exit the SECURITY ROOM through the door opposite the camera stations and follow the walkway down and around to a broken section.

Grab onto the vertical pipe. Climb up, then right, then up some more. Grab the narrow, horizontal ledge and traverse to the left as far as you can go. Drop onto the walkway below. If you unlocked that last upgrade, Lara should have just enough strength to make it.

If you're having trouble with this climb even after getting the strength upgrade, try climbing just as far as the horizontal ledge. Then let go and immediately press Action again to grab the horizontal pipe below.

This resets Lara's grab meter. Continue with rest of the climb, as shown above, and you should be fine.

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