Throughout this walkthrough I use abbreviations for north (N), northeast (NE), southwest (SW), etc., to give directions. There is no compass in this game, but just to make it easier to navigate on screen, we'll assume north is up, west is left, east is right and south is down. Outdoor levels include a map screen in the Inventory in case you get lost. Also, I played using the medium combat difficulty setting so your experiences may differ slightly on a different setting.
*Although the PC, console and iOS versions are similar, there are significant differences in a few areas. The iOS version does not include this level. It skips directly from the Twisting Bridge level to Xolotl's Stronghold.
Level 11: Belly of the Beast (Single Player) | Updated: 1/21/14(†) |
For the 2-player co-op walkthrough, please see here.
Score Challenges: 30K, 50K, 70K (Bonus: Heavy Grenade Launcher) Reward Challenges:
Artifacts: White Drum, Serpent Drum, Clay Serpent A complete list of artifacts, relics and weapons can be found here. |
COLLAPSING BRIDGE: Move quickly across the rickety wooden bridge, which drops out from under Lara as she passes. Take the ROCKET LAUNCHER from the pedestal and equip it. (screenshot) When you acquire the weapon, the camera shifts briefly to show an AMMO CACHE at the bottom of the lava pit in the center of the room.
THE LAVA T. REX: When you move across the next wooden platform toward the nothern corner of the room, an enormous Tyrannosaurus rex made of molten rock emerges from one of the small lava pools. Like the T. rex in the earlier level, The Summoning, he chases Lara and tries to stomp her, bite her and generally toss her around, and when he gets really cranky, he also breathes fire. Unlike the other dinosaur, you'll need to actually shoot this one to bring him down.
Weaker weapons can damage the T. rex, but this takes time. The rocket launcher is here for a reason; use it. In order to destroy the T. rex, you must hit him about 16 times. If you've collected all the Ammo Upgrades so far, you'll be able to shoot 5 rockets before your ammo bar is depleted and you have to reload. So even if you don't miss, you'll have to reload several times.
The 4 large, square pressure pads on each side of the pit each raise the pedestal with the AMMO CACHE and extend a bridge so you can reach it—but only temporarily. Stepping on any of the pads raises the pedestal, but each pad extends a different bridge. (West pad = NW bridge; south pad = SW bridge; east pad = SE bridge; north pad = NE bridge.) Once you reach the pedestal, you have only a few seconds to refill your ammo bar before the bridge you came across begins to collapse. If you can't make it back across quickly, move to the other side of the ammo pile and cross over the opposite bridge as it extends. If you take too long, both bridges collapse and the pedestal sinks into the lava.
There are also boxes of ammo on some of the round pillars sitting in the lava pools along the straight edges of the arena. (More about these below.)
The basic strategy for defeating the T. rex is fairly straightforward: Blast it with rockets as you try to avoid its attacks and the various lava pools. When you run out of ammo, step on one of the pressure pads and run to the pedestal with the AMMO CACHE to recharge. Hurry back to the arena and continue firing. The level ends when the T. rex is defeated. So if you're going after the red skulls and artifacts, be sure to obtain them all before finishing off the boss.
If you need health during the battle, try killing the fire-breathing lizards that emerge from the rectangular lava pools surrounding the central pit. The lizards only start to spawn after papa rex has lost about half his health. They also breathe fire but don't do too much damage. Sometimes they drop health or gems when they die. (Is it just me, or is it weird seeing a tiny lizard poop out a giant health pack?)
Around the same time as the little lizards begin to emerge, fireballs also start falling from the ceiling. Try to avoid them if possible.
When the boss has lost about three-quarters of his health, 4 fire shamans appear—one on each side of the room, standing on the round pillars in the lava. You don't have to kill them unless you're trying to beat the various score and reward challenges (below).
REWARD CHALLENGES – SPIDER TILES AND RED SKULLS: If you want all the rewards, you'll need to explore the entire area pretty thoroughly before you bring down the T. rex, since the level ends when he falls. I recommend playing through at least twice: once to find all the goodies and beat the score challenge and once to kill the boss in under 5 minutes.
To beat the first Reward Challenge: Step on all 11 spider tiles, all you need to do is jump across each of the round pillars sitting in the lava pool along the edges of the room. When you step on each pillar the spider tile on top glows blue, showing that it's been activated and the on-screen counter pops up displaying the total so far. There are 3 pillars each along the NE, SE and SW sides of the arena, and 2 on the NW side. When you activate all of them, you'll get a White Drum Artifact (+ defense, + speed). (One set of pillars is shown in this screenshot. The rest are shown in the screenshots for red skulls 7-10, below.)
This is easier to do at the beginning of the level before the fire shamans appear, but to save time, you can combine this challenge with red-skull hunting, since 4 of the skulls appear later on these pillars.
RED SKULLS: A few of the skulls are sitting in plain sight; some aren't so easy to find. Here are their locations:
Red skulls 1–4 are hovering above the bridges that lead to the pedestal with the AMMO CACHE. You can get them 2 at a time as you go to replenish your ammo. Step on either the north or south pressure pad to raise the NE/SW bridge. Follow the bridge out to the ammo cache, picking up one skull as you go. Then hop over the ammo and cross the opposite bridge, picking up the other skull in the process. Repeat with the east/west pad and NW/SE bridges. (screenshots)
The 5th and 6th red skulls are hidden inside the skinny, narrow columns at the northern- and southernnmost corners of the arena. Use a bomb to destroy each column and reveal the skull. (screenshots)
Red skulls 7–10 are carried by the 4 fire shamans that appear after the T. rex has lost about ¾ of his health bar. There will be one shaman on each set of round pillars in the lava pools along the edges of the room (i.e., the pillars with the spider tiles that you must activate for the other Reward Challenge). When you kill each shaman, one of the skulls appears. (screenshots)
Collecting all 10 skulls earns you a Serpent Drum Artifact (+ bomb, + speed).
Once you've completed these challenges, you may want to concentrate on beating the Score Challenges. After defeating the 4 shamans, continue avoiding the boss and just keep killing the red lizards as they spawn. Each is worth 1,000 points and some drop gems that will add to your total.
After that, finish the T. rex and the level.
Next time, concentrate on fighting the T. rex without worrying about points and collectibles. If you manage to defeat him in under 5 minutes, you'll receive a Clay Serpent Artifact (+ defense, + bomb, + speed) as a reward.
†UPDATE HISTORY: 9/4/10 - First draft walkthrough posted.
11/3/10 - Added screenshots and made a few minor changes for clarity.
11/26/12 - Made a few minor corrections while working on the co-op walkthrough.
1/21/14 - Added update about missing levels in iOS version, thanks to a tip from Sean O.
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