LEVEL 13: CATACOMBS OF THE TALION
Kills: 33 Items: 29 (33)* plus 2 Tibetan masks and 3 secrets
(*Under found items, the number in parentheses shows total including extra items granted for finding all three secrets.)
Jump down on either side of the stairs and walk to the opening to avoid the falling icicles. In the next room, along the left wall, is a crevice. Grab it and traverse to the right until you can pull up. Drop down behind the wall to find some flares and SECRET #1, the Stone Dragon. Return the way you came. Turn and slide down the slope backwards, grab the edge, pull up and back flip onto the platform behind. From here you can kill the Yeti lurking below. Carefully trip the icicles above the stairs to your right now, note the door at the bottom, then return to the top of the stairs. Drop down into the pit where the dead Yeti is. Pull the switch to open the door above and let a leopard in. Return to the top via the ladder. Repeat the slide/back flip to the platform, kill the leopard and proceed down the stairs.
As you go down the stairs into the large room, 2 thugs with guns will emerge at the top of the stairs behind you. Kill them and take their small med-pack, auto pistol clips and 2 sets of Uzi clips. Cross the room and approach the small doorway on the far right, beyond the pool. Immediately roll and take out the 2 leopards that charge you from behind. Go through the small door and down the ramp to get a glimpse of what lies ahead, as well as a small med-pack before returning to the big room.
Above is a long ramp with snowballs at the top. Climb the first flight of stairs and jump to the base of the ramp. Run up the ramp to trip the snowballs, then side flip into the pool. Climb down and go to the rocks near the small opening where you killed the leopards. Go around the back to climb up. Do a running jump to the snow-covered platform opposite, then walk to the broken tiles with spikes below. Run across the tiles and press Action to grab the ladder as the floor falls away below. Climb to the top of the ladder and back flip to land on the platform behind you. Jump to the top of the ramp and pull the switch to raise the cage opposite. Slide down the ramp. Climb up to the cage and take the TIBETAN MASK. Doing this causes the trapdoor at the bottom of the pool to open.
Climb down, drop into the pool, then through the trapdoor. Follow the passageway, jumping over the trench with spikes. Beyond is a gate, which you can open using the mask.
At the top of the hill beyond are a bunch of those pesky snowballs. To complicate things, a pack of leopards will attack as soon as you enter the area. Ready weapons (I like the shotgun for leopards, but take your pick), then run up the ramp and side jump to the right to avoid the snowballs. Kill all 4 leopards.
The main doors at the top of the ramp (where the snowballs came from) are locked. Go up the ramp and jump to grab the opening in the left wall. Beyond the opening is a room with a frozen pond and a firepot high above. Note the door with the face above on the right. You'll be opening this a bit later on. Now, prepare for another leopard-fest. When you drop down, 2 leopards charge you. 4 more leopards-2 from ahead, 2 from behind-emerge when you approach the doorway on the right. They can climb on rocks, so there's no use seeking higher ground. Just hop around a lot and do your best to kill them.
Enter the cavern on the right where there's a huge wall of ice. Just to the left of the entrance is a rock outcropping. Climb over this into a small cave with water below. Swim down and pick up a second TIBETAN MASK. (Through a grate under the water you can see a bright object. You can also see it under the ice in the next room. This is a gong hammer, which you won't be able to get until the next level.) When you climb back up, 2 thugs will be waiting below. Kill them from the rocks if you can, then take their small med-pack, Uzi clips and 2 sets of auto pistol clips.
Return to the main area with the buildings and go around the back of the building with the red trim. Climb the ladder at the back and retrieve 2 pairs of grenades from the ledge. Descend and use the mask to open the door below.
There are 4 Yetis in this very dark room. Fortunately they're in cages and can't get out until you free them. Enter the room and head to the left. Jump across the gaps to the center platform where there's a firepot and a switch. When you pull the switch, the lights go on, the Yeti cages open and grates appear in the gaps between the platforms (i.e., they can get to you). You can try and run for the exit, or just tough it out and shoot them in here. When they're all dead, claim your reward: Downstairs in the cages you'll find 2 large med-packs, 2 pairs of grenades and 2 sets of Uzi clips.
Go back to the top of the stairs and move the block into the first of the small doorways with the gates above. There's a pair of grenades on the floor in one of the other doorways. In the room beyond is a switch. Pull it to open the door above the opening to the firepot room. It also closes the four gates, which is why you need to move that block.
Head for the door you just opened, killing the 3 bad guys who would try to stop you and taking their 2 boxes of shotgun shells, 2 sets of auto pistol clips, Uzi clips and small med-pack. When you get to the door above the opening in the rocks, run up the wooden bridge and duck to the left beyond the doorway to avoid the rolling snowballs. Continue to the end of the bridge, turn right and do a running jump to catch the ladder. Climb up to a room with an opening over water. Get out of the water as quickly as you can and shoot the 3 fish that would nibble on you.
Swim through the next cave. (Don't bother getting out on the icy bank, since there's nothing there but falling icicles.) Climb out on the rocky ledge on the right side of the opening into the third cave. Turn around and you'll see a ladder above you. Climb to the top then do a back flip off the ladder to land on the platform behind you. Here you'll find SECRET #2, the Jade Dragon. Run and jump to grab the ladder and descend.
Continue into the last cave. The large doors are closed. Climb up on the block in front of them. Do a running jump to grab the bottom of the ladder hanging from the cave ceiling. Climb up and back flip to land on a ledge behind you. Here is the switch that opens the doors below.
Enter the room and kill the charging leopard. Then pull another switch to open the main doors back at the buildings. To get down, go to the platform on the right of the firepot. Do a running jump to land on the slanted blocks below and slide to the ground.
Return to the main doors. Just ahead is an opening into a room below. You don't have to go down there in order to get through the level. If you want to do it anyway, ready guns and jump. 3 leopards charge you when you hit the ground. Take care of them and take some grenades, M-16 clips and a large med-pack. Flip the switch to open the side doors and release a fourth leopard.
Go back to the top of the ramp, go through the doors and jump across the pit. Hills ahead and to the left have snowballs perched at the top. First, jump up the ramp on the left to set the snow rolling. Slide back down, then immediately side flip to the right. This will trigger the other avalanche. Slide down and either jump over the snowballs as they roll past or run a few steps forward (you'll be facing the pit now) and side flip to the left. (You can also jump into the pit below through the openings on the sides, but you'll lose a bit of health-quite a bit if you haven't taken care of those leopards first.)
Enter the room opposite the first ramp. Here you'll see some snow and two floor tiles that don't match the others. These are pads that open the doors. First, step on the pad to the left to open the door in front of it. Enter the room, and look to the left. Notice the ledge above and the area of wall that looks different from the rest. You can climb up this wall like a ladder to get SECRET #3, the Gold Dragon (and a bonus of 2 pairs of grenades and 2 sets of M-16 clips if this is your third secret). Descend and walk carefully through the spikes to the door on the right.
The remaining door in this room leads to the level exit, so you'll need to get through it. The "how" is a bit complicated: The first pad opens the first door (1). You've been through it already. The second door (2) opens when you approach it. The other pad (near the snowballs) opens the exit door (3). All the doors are on timers, so walking through the spikes is too slow. You'll need to go out door 2, step on the pad that opens door 3, return through door 2 and run through door 3 before it closes. The combo that worked for me was this: Stand in the spike room just behind door 2. Step forward to open the door, then do a running jump to the raised floor just in front of the snow. Standing jump over the snow, roll (which also serves to open the door), running jump back over the snow, then running jump into the doorway (pulling up is too slow), and run through door 3.
Do a running jump to the ladder, climb down and follow the passage to the end of the level.
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