Released in November 1999, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation received mediocre reviews for continuing to adhere to the same basic gameplay of the first Tomb Raider. The game pits Lara Croft against her old mentor, Werner Von Croy, who has been possessed by the ancient Egyptian god Set.
Note: Since the corner and trigger glitches save a significant portion of time (20+ minutes), runs using those two glitches and runs that don't use those two glitches are two separate categories.
Best time with large-skip glitches: 2:14:03 by Aleš 'Ewil' Horák on 2008-05-05, done in 46 segments across 43 files.
Author's comments:
Recording was done in 640x480 4xAA and 30fps since my old computer couldn't handle bigger resolution. Also, this run was made on 4 different graphics card and 2 sound cards, so please excuse any differencies in quality, although you'll probably notice just slightly different volume. I highly recommend HQ version, which looks just like you would be play.
The game timer is different from previous Tomb Raider games. It doesn't show you the time when you finish the level, but it will show you your total time in save/load screen, that's why I always wait cca 10 seconds after each segment, so you can see the total time. You can easily discount total times between 2 levels to get one level time, of course.
Some basic info:
Tricks'n'Bugs
This was just a presentation of the most used tricks. For more techniques and detailed explanation, please visit http://www.tombrunner.net/Areaindex.htm.
Level comments:
Old time: 6:44
New time: 6:10
Improvement: 34 seconds
I wouldn't guess it could be so much quicker than my previous time clocking at 6:44. I've changed like half a stuff even though you won't probably notice many of them unless you've seen the previous run xxx times
0:27 - If you skip Von Croy's chatting too soon, he won't take out his notepad thus you can't avoid his chatting after the spikes, because he will immediately follow you instead of taking out/in the notebook.
0:32 - Swan diving allows you to cross spikes without any harm and you don't have to wait for Von Croy to trigger them. This trick was found by AjAX.
0:36 - In order to not trigger any Von Croy's cutscenes, you must be very quick from 0:27 to this point. It's quite easy after some practice.
0:48 - Used backflip so I could immediately roll after impact on the floor thus avoiding stumble.
0:59 - If you tap Look key very quickly before the shimmy cutscene, you can skip 2 seconds waiting delay for next cutscene.
1:34 - A curve jump to skip water sequence.
1:44 - Most lucky area of entire level. You can save here up to 4 seconds, unfortunately this happens only in 1 of 50 cases. I saved 2 seconds here.
1:59 - Same as 0:59 with the difference that you save 3-4 seconds.
5:29 - AI here is quite stupid, so you have to step on this block, otherwise he'll do nothing.
5:52 - This crawl-corner bug saves about 20 seconds.
Old time: 4:42
New time: 4:13
Improvement: 29 seconds
I thought the route is pretty much perfect up to the crawl-corner shortcut, but then I found some pretty new stuff, although it doesn't save as much as in Ankgor Wat.
0:58 - This is not a mistake ! It's an intended route. I didn't know about this corridor before, but when I take it I always end up being 0.5-1 second faster than the upper route even though she stumbles. I couldn't find any proper technique to cancel the stumble since there's not much space or it didn't save any time at all.
1:23 - The crawl-corner bug works only in the way I do it. Saves around 25 seconds.
1:22 - I might have been 0.2-0.3 second faster at the last sprint, but it wouldn't probably mean 4:12. As for the timed run, 49:90 is for the last frame before fade in starts and the world record, of course.
Old time: 6:56
New time: 6:29
Improvement: 27 seconds
This is just a "glitched" version of my 6:41 record plus some small tweaks.
1:01 - Since I always had a time before Guide reaches the room, I rather used it to take another small medipack.
1:26-1:30 - Killing both scorpions is necessary, otherwise the Guide can start killing them and you lose time.
2:08 - This is a funny bug found by AjAX. If you bump to the left wall right before the blades, you activate them before the Guide ! Quite a mystery.
2:19 - You have to wait for Guide to start the blade activation sequence, otherwise he would just stand there.
2:36 - This room took me quite a while before I figured out how the Guide works here, because I was getting random times, then I discovered that the fastest way is to trigger the cutscene as fast as possible and kill one dog before.
2:58 - All enemies in Guide's way must die, otherwise he tries to kill them and you lose time.
5:58 - Sand pit room has a completely new route and 2 seconds faster than the old one. If you wonder why I didn't use flare cancel, it's because I couldn't (another bug). I would have to stop on the sand hill. rr_carroll has found out later a better route going right instead of left, but I was already in the Valley of the Kings.
Old time: 5:46
New time: 5:25
Improvement: 21 seconds
I wanted to do this run without any mistakes, but my patience prevented it and this level isn't even the hardest one.
0:11 - One of the tricks that I love in old TRs. You can avoid stumble by jumping to the ceiling.
2:11 - ricky bazire later found out that it's possible to sommersault through the coffin without lurking out the mummy. It would save 2-3 seconds.
2:21 - There is a crawl-corner bug by my left side, but the problem is that you have to be precise, there are jackals bothering it and it basically doesn't save anything.
3:20 - Worst room ever. The solution I present here is the best and the fastest I could figure out.
3:58 - My favourite shortcut, which skips entire room. If you jump like I did, you will avoid instant-death trigger.
Old time: 1:50
New time: 1:42
Improvement: 8 seconds
I never thought this segment could be so ugly. Took well over 500+ attempts. There are 2 lucky things. First one is the second guy hiding behind the jeep in about 95% of all attempts and the second one is the extremely low chance for jeep keys to appear right under your legs. If I remember correctly, I only had the keys right under my legs 3 times. I've also greatly improved the "uzi-style" shooting.
Old time: 1:37
New time: 1:35
Improvement: 2 seconds
I was very right about the maximum time I can shave off. Exactly 2 seconds just by better driving and tiny route improvisations. I bumped to jeep at the beginning, but hell there's so little space to squeeze it's very hard not to bump anywhere and still be faster than jeep. There are only 2 places, where I could screw up an attempt. First is pretty obvious, jeep overtake without as less bumps as possible plus you have to get almost full speed on slope (1 line before top speed), second one is the freaking 180 degrees turn at the sands near end. This one destroyed many perfect attempts, since you can't exactly see where you are going and there's very little space to drive through without a weird jeep stucks or complete stops.
0:10 - Very nice shortcut. If you are really fast, you can overtake the jeep.
0:31 - If you keep some distance from the jeep, you can drive through the gate skipping the scaffoldings area.
Old time: 3:57
New time: 1:17
Improvement: 2:30
rr_carroll found a great trigger bug just before the first Canopic Jar, that allows you to skip the big area and save more than 2 minutes.
0:26 - Typical corner-bug, crawl-corner one doesn't work here.
1:11 - In order to get the crawl-corner bug to work, you HAVE to kill both scorpions. I have no idea what's the connection between these two things.
1:22 - Trigger-bug allowing you to trigger the exit.
Old time: 1:02
New time: 1:01
Improvement: 1 second
Not much has been changed thus only 1 second improvement. The only real faster thing is at the beginning, where I force Lara to catch the edge directly from below thus saving like half a second maybe. I tried to somehow skip the cutscene trigger via corners like it's possible to skip activating the blades in Lost Library, but nothing worked.
0:07 - Flare cancels doesn't work here, so I'm using backflip.
Old time: 4:00
New time: 3:51
Improvement: 9 seconds
Basically nothing new here, just a better play.
0:08 - Again, the flare cancel doesn't work.
0:32 - If you're lucky, you can avoid croc's bite. Thanks to this, it's possible to finish the level without using any medipacks. I didn't make it in this attempt
0:46 - There is a corner bug that I didn't use, because it takes same time as a pole climb.
1:27 - You can notice one frame is black. Well, it happens everytime, so it's not my fault.
2:35 - This is a very buggy corridor. Took me a while before I found out reliable way to swim through it, so the door can be opened. I'm not 100% sure, but if you hit left or right side, the door won't work afterwards. You can also reset the trigger by swimming through the corridor again.
Old time: 3:19
New time: 3:19
Improvement: 0 seconds
So easy looking, but so damn random and annoying. Did 2 small mistakes in order to preserve my sanity. Lost 1 second because of that.
0:43 - One of the thing I had to do extra in this level, since I skipped that in Temple of Karnak 1st.
1:24 - I found no way to prevent the stuck without losing a time.
1:31 - First mistake, I emersed too much to the right, so I had to swim a bit.
1:41 - Had to wait cca half a second, releasing all keys, otherwise the Action button doesn't work. Just a bug. Taking the Hypostyle Key is useless, but unavoidable.
1:49 - It's possible to get struck by croc and be able to catch the block immediately, but it only hapenned to me once.
2:03 - Sommersault isn't possible here, she always bumps and I had to release all keys for a while again (you can't notice).
2:57 - Second mistake I made, that bump is avoidable.
3:22 - Weird noise, huh? I have no idea why it happens just here. Probably another bug.
Old time: 2:48
New time: 2:36
Improvement: 12 seconds
0:20 - This faster crawl-corner bug saves more than 1 minutes, because I can shoot down the brown ball right from there.
2:28 - You have to wait a while for cracking the glass, otherwise she would fall down.
Old time: 2:06
New time: 1:59
Improvement: 7 seconds
Very easy segment, too. It was basically another "Damn, what was I doing previously?", since I have managed to cut off quite a lot of time from this very short level. There's basically nothing new except I avoided a mistake at one point and the end fall is executed far more better with flare cancel, although it doesn't work instantly, so I only saved about a second.
Old time: 9:26
New time: 5:53
Improvement: 3:33
Another level that I've changed a lot.
1:53 - Crawl-corner bugged to the top level, skipping the whole Senet game and saving many 3 minute from the previous run.
2:56 - Action button doesn't work till I release all keys.
5:31 - Only mistake in this level.
Old time: 4:15
New time: 4:00
Improvement: 15 seconds
This level could have been done under 4 minutes if I would use one small trick at the very end.
1:12 - This crawl-corner bug is quite a pain in the ass since the angle is really bad and you can't see there much.
2:22 - Swan dive at the beginning was always half a second faster than other techniques.
3:20 - Shouldn't she be like...dead? No, I have 0% health, you die if your health is negative.
3:32 - I could have been a 0.7 second faster if I would have used one trick. It would also mean sub 4 minutes run.
Old time: 3:53
New time: 3:29
Improvement: 24 seconds
The old record was honestly rubbish, but I had no idea it's THAT bad. I found a small shortcut, which saves cca 8-9 seconds, but I still was able to improve it by another 15 seconds.
0:27 - I'm skipping a small cutscene using a curve jump. It's at the highest point. This trick has to be also done on your way back.
0:52 - You may notice I stop sprinting. Well, she wouldn't flare cancel afterwards.
2:07 - I hate this room. Either I didn't step right onto the grenade launcher, or assasin was bugging me or I got stuck somewhere. This is probably the best way to handle this room.
2:43 - Lost a second because of the ninjas.
2:49 - Second time avoiding the cutscene.
3:10 - I had to remove the funny ending, since this method seems faster.
Old time: 0:43
New time: 0:40
Improvement: 3 seconds
There are 2 ways to get to 2nd floor of the house. First is the one I'm using and the second consists of corner-bugging on the right platform, but it's slightly slower.
0:22 - It's possible to open the door without stopping Lara, but very unreliable and saves just a decimals.
Old time: 3:43
New time: 3:29
Improvement: 14 seconds
As usually, I had no idea that this level could be improved so much. I initially wanted to skip crossbow and take a revolver right before Inside the Great Pyramid, but then I've realized that I still need it in order to destroy the sentry gun in City of the Dead. It wouldn't be actually faster much.
0:30 - I've improved this room by couple seconds. Now it's much smoother. I wanted to go for the wooden stick first, then crossbow, but I was having that stupid bug "I won't do this action until you release all keys" all the time.
0:46 - Crawl-corner bug saving around one minute.
2:30 - I've tried everything, but nothing works against triggering the cutscene. Not even jumping through the corner in white block.
3:02 - Same.
Old time: 1:26
New time: 1:23
Improvement: 3 seconds
This level was in 3 segments in the previous run, but it isn't anymore. I just did some small improvements resulting in 3 seconds faster time. It's not possible to avoid being crushed by the rock without using flare cancel.
0:33 - Using the flare cancel, you can skip using a torch on a rope.
Old time: 0:44
New time: 0:42
Improvement: 2 seconds
Main improvement comes from faster crawling right at the beginning when I turn just twice instead of triple.
Old time: 6:32
New time: 5:46
Improvement: 46 seconds
I had to split this level into 2 segments due to random things and many bugs. After couple tries, the chance of doing the dive bug raised from 10% to 20-30%, so I could theoretically do it in 1 segment, but I didn't because of many bugs.
1:16 - You have to attract the ghost to this room, so he'll disappear a while later, otherwise it will kill you.
1:27 - This trigger-bug is totally random. What you see happens in cca 1 from 10 attempts, otherwise you have to do some jumping and turning to get it opened. Strange thing is that you can't get out of the corner using roll immediately after you open the door. You have to roll twice or you're stuck. Also, it sometimes happens that the nearby skeleton gets resurrected.
1:50 - First bug. If I would roll right before the ladder, she would never do that. You have to release all keys for a moment.
1:54 - The ladder can be done with only 3 catches, not 4.
1:56 - This is a mistake, I didn't have to catch, but if you get too close, Lara will bump to the platform head and fall down.
2:09 - Second bug. If you bump to the ladder and immediately try to catch it, she won't do so. Either avoid the bump or release all keys for a moment.
2:38 - I wish this skeleton would die, he is really annoying.
2:44 - Third bug. This one doesn't happen too often, but when it does, she won't catch the pole.
3:10 - Fourth bug. If you don't stop, she won't catch the pole.
3:36 - Second segment.
3:46 - A dive bug discovered by rr_carroll. Saves about 40 seconds. It's not hard if you practice it a bit and the landing doesn't have to be precisely on the very same spot like in this run. However, I lost some pick-ups, because I avoided a secret place.
4:18 - I wasn't sure how many shotgun ammo I will need later, so I took this one, but it wasn't needed.
5:20 - Fifth bug. Lara won't light up the flare here, so I did it before.
5:33 - Sixth bug. Lara won't do flare cancel in some cases.
Old time: 5:20
New time: 5:09
Improvement: 11 seconds
This could be a second faster if I wouldn't be so bored by this level The improvement is still big.
4:26 - I was never able to make a swan-dive that wouldn't end up hitting the wall, thus cancelling the boost you get from swan dive, so I just ran to the hole, which turned out to be slightly faster.
4:49 - I can't sprint here, otherwise she wouldn't have done the flare cancel.
5:00 - I could have probably avoid using a small medipack if I would have be more careful right at the very beginning, but that would mean losing about 2 seconds.
Old time: 15:59
New time: 1:22
Improvement: 14 minutes, 37 seconds
Thanks to rr_carroll for finding those 2 massive shortcuts. I had to use 2 segments, because of the very random trigger-bug at the very end.
0:50 - Getting rid of the flare ghosts is necessary, you won't survive later.
0:58 - This shortcut can be pretty bad as you don't exactly see the corner, but I made it to look easy.
1:29 - This shortcut is so random, that even exact copy of the previous successfull attempts doesn't have to work. It usually works after 20 seconds of desperate jumping. My best time using single segment is 1:31, so you can imagine how random it is.
Old time: 0:37
New time: 0:31
Improvement: 6 seconds
The previous run was really rubbish and I'm using a different corner, which is slightly faster.
Old time: 2:17
New time: 2:11
Improvement: 6 seconds
This is actually a 2 level run. Both are easy and short.
2:01 - The only thing worth a comment. This door is pretty buggy, like in Sacred Lake, but I did it ok.
Old time: 5:10
New time: 4:59
Improvement: 11 seconds
Uh, a pretty complicated level. Many things can go wrong here. The good thing is that I was able to save 1 grenade and 1 small medipack. The bad thing is that I think I could have saved one more grenade, but that's only maybe.
0:35 - This shortcut is really massive, it skips about 80% of Temple of Isis and was found by me. It's a trigger-bug, which activates the spikes that you normally have to cross using Mechanical Scarab and Winding Key. Many attempts went wrong here, because Lara either died from triggering the first set of spikes or it took too long to trigger them all.
0:46 - There is a skeleton that must die, otherwise he would bug me at the next trigger-bug.
0:52 - This trigger-bug is really weird. I couldn't get it to work first, but then rr_carroll found out it actually works if you don't take one item before (don't remember the name of it right now). The best way here would be to trigger all 3 set of spikes instantly, which is possible, but I didn't make it this time. I did fine though.
1:24 - Since I mustn't lose any health, I have to wait for the right moment to sprint through the blade trap.
2:42 - It's possible not to stumble after the running jump and just go further, because it was causing me a major problems, so I didn't do it.
Old time: 1:10
New time: 0:55
Improvement: 15 seconds
Not much to say except it's much better than its predecessor.
0:39 - Stupid bug again, you have to release all keys or she won't draw the grenade launcher.
Old time: 0:15
New time: 0:15
Improvement: 0 seconds
I could have done this level together with City of the Dead, but I didn't want to since this is a entirely new level. It's possible to make it in 14 seconds, but only if you finish previous level with low decimals. In this case, I finished with high.
Old time: 1:05
New time: 0:41
Improvement: 24 seconds
In order to get the trigger-bug to work in second visit of this level, you have to kill 3 soldiers nearby.
0:45 - Now that I think of it, I could have maybe used flare cancel here.
Old time: 1:36
New time: 1:32
Improvement: 4 seconds
I've saved one flare at the beginning, but nothing else has changed.
Old time: 0:28
New time: 0:21
Improvement: 7 seconds
0:14 - You have to hold Action, otherwise she would land in the mine field.
0:27 - I couldn't make this trigger-bug to work for a long time, then I realized it's because I always used a flare cancel and then I found out once the flare is dead, the bug started working. Strange.
Old time: 2:29
New time: 2:35
Improvement: -6 seconds
I lost 6 seconds since I had to mount the cycle, everything else is just slightly improved.
Old time: 11:15
New time: 9:40
Improvement: 1 minute, 35 seconds
Another 2 segment run due to unreliable corner bug and many, many bugs. This level is really badly done, you can bump or get stuck in every room or corridor.
2:42 - Really unreliable corner-bug. It looks easy, but you have to be pixel-perfect, otherwise you will either fall to the water or don't imbedd.
5:04 - This is a very horrible mistake that cost me about 4 seconds, but I really needed those flares.
Old time: 2:41
New time: 2:25
Improvement: 16 seconds
I found quite many new shortcuts and ways to make this level much faster.
1:51 - Have to wait about a second or the ninjas will be bugging me at the crates.
Old time: 11:10
New time: 10:56
Improvement: 14 seconds
Not many things changed.
0:31 - This move is for not awakening the bulls.
2:05 - Really stupid mistake...
3:05 - It's possible to do a sommersault to the crawlspace to save some time, but fraps doesn't really like it and Lara usually won't go forward afterwards.
3:57 - Same as before.
6:38 - I stop swimming, because there is a big chance you encounter the famous bug, which makes Action button not working till you release all keys.
Old time: 2:00
New time: 1:47
Improvement: 13 seconds
I totally owned this level this time and avoided all bugs.
0:51 - Watch the scorpion closely
Old time: 5:13
New time: 4:52
Improvement: 21 seconds
This is the most annoying and most stupid level in entire Tomb Raider history. Just watch the rope part and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, my record was 5:06 from the very first run, which I couldn't beat in my second run. Luckily, I totally owned it for the third time and ended up with a very surprising time. The second part with swinging blades was very lucky as you usually fall to the pit if you get hit by the blade.
0:20 - Laser sight bug.
2:48 - Could have been 2 seconds faster if I would make the sommersault here. I tried, but it was already too late, so Lara just jumped.
Old time: 0:19
New time: 0:19
Improvement: 0 seconds
No comment.
Old time: 6:16
New time: 5:46
Improvement: 30 seconds
This level has the most mistakes, but I still think it went very well. Main problem are 4 rooms with lion heads that you have to destroy all with super grenades that are just totally random. I only completed 3 rooms like that in my previou run, one lion head had to be destroyed using laser sight bug. Another problem are those narrow corridors, it's very easy to bump somewhere. I've also found out that I didn't have to take a shotgun ammo in Catacombs as it's really not needed to kill so many jackals.
1:40 - I have to wait a while, otherwise the super grenade doesn't have to hit the lion head on the wall behind me everytime.
2:34 - Worst mistake in this run.
5:15 - This is the reason why I let this run with so many mistakes. This ape is really stupid, but I got extremely lucky this time and he went for the lever immediately, which actually never hapenned before. He usually waits at least 2 seconds.
Old time: 1:28
New time: 1:10
Improvement: 18 seconds
0:18 - There is a shortcut I had to ignore. If you would continue a bit, you can do a hard curve jump to get right to the pyramid, but you have to trigger a long cutscene afterwards, because it's not possible to avoid it without getting on a roof of Mastaba, so I just used crawl-corner bug instead.
0:57 - A very nice double-shortcut saving about 40 seconds.
Old time: 3:12
New time: 3:07
Improvement: 5 seconds
I couldn't beat 3:12 for a looong time for unknown reason even though I made a lot of improvements, but I finally made it.
Old time: 3:34
New time: 2:07
Improvement: 1 minute, 27 seconds
0:28 - The only block bug working in TR4. I have to kill those 3 jackals before, because they would follow me to that small room (bug). I can kill them there too, but it would be slower.
0:53 - The red ninja usually follows you to this room, but not this time. Unfortunately, he'll come later and annoy me.
1:50 - Lost some time killing the ninja and bat.
1:57 - rr_carroll was trying to find a way down the beam since it's too high for you to survive and he came up with this trick. It looks like a reverse corner-bug since you fall faster, but the main reason for doing this is that it makes you fall on a higher spot on the slope, thus you will survive.
Old time: 4:13
New time: 3:48
Improvement: 25 seconds
I divided Temple of Horus into two segments as there are 2 loading screens. Main improvement is the fixed last scale, which I did totally wrong in previous run.
2:16 - There is some weird bug that prevents you from catching the climbable wall, so I have to climb down.
Old time: 3:26
New time: 2:14
Improvement: 1 minute, 12 seconds
Another very strange shortcut was found by rr_carroll, skipping both levers.
0:15 - This is the strange shortcut. If you catch the platform, shimmy to right, pull up, jump backward and catch the platform again, you will "teleport" upwards. I can't explain why it happens, I just know it works everytime.
Thanks for watching and thanks to SDA crew for such a wonderful site. See ya at some next run.