St. Francis' Folly is the big vertical one, four themed rooms and a very long way down if you get it wrong. Here's how to get through it.
TLDR;
Take it slow and save often. All four god rooms — Neptune, Thor, Atlas and Damocles — have a key in them. Swan dive past Thor's lightning, outrun the Atlas boulder, and take the Damocles swords one step at a time. Fight in open areas and use pistols on the standard enemies, and check broken pillars and odd bits of architecture for secrets and supplies.
The Layout
It's a tall vertical chamber with multiple floors, and four themed puzzle rooms named after Greek gods lead off it. Each room has a challenge, and each challenge hands you a key you need to carry on.
Here's where the switches and doors sit:
- Neptune Switch: 1st level / Neptune Door: 5th level
- Atlas Switch: Ground level / Atlas Door: 3rd level
- Damocles Switch: 3rd level / Damocles Door: 1st level
- Thor Switch: 4th level / Thor Door: 2nd level
Have a proper look around before you start climbing. The remastered graphics make paths easier to pick out, but if you can't spot a ledge or a jump, flick between classic and modern graphics with the dedicated button, since some architectural details show up better in one mode than the other.
The God Rooms, In Order
You can take the rooms in any order, but going by difficulty this is the run:
1. Neptune Room
Start here, it's the simple one. Swim down, pull the lever, grab the key and swim back up. It's a deep drop so keep an eye on your air, but there's nothing tricky in it.
2. Thor Room
It's more than one room. The first part is the lightning:
- The strike zone is a circle you can see marked out in the floor tiles, so stay outside it and you're fine
- Or swan dive straight through, which carries you past without getting hit
- Don't bother trying to time the strikes, that's not how it works
Past that is the hammer room, with Thor's hammer and pushblocks falling from above. Get up the blocks to the top and grab the key.
3. Atlas Room
One boulder, and it means it:
- The pressure pad opens the gate, and the boulder comes the moment you head up the passage
- Run along the right side, then veer left and hold Action to pull onto the safe ledge before it flattens you
- The key's on the ledge above the pit the boulder ends up in
4. Damocles Room
Leave this one for last, the traps here are the least predictable:
- The falling swords are motion-triggered and hard to time
- Walk, don't run, under the suspended swords
- Take it slow and deliberate
- Save as you go
Combat
The level throws a few things at you:
- Bats, mostly a nuisance
- Gorillas and lions, dangerous mid-tier threats
- Pierre DuPont, the recurring human enemy
Dealing with them:
- Pull enemies into open areas where you've got room to move
- Pistols on the standard enemies so you're not burning special ammo
- Keep the shotgun shells for emergencies or Pierre
- Use the height differences and shoot down from ledges where you can, it's safer
Secrets and Supplies
There are hidden areas dotted around with decent pickups in them:
- Look for suspicious cracks or discolored walls
- Poke at broken pillars and any architecture that looks unusual
- Check for hidden ledges around the main chamber
- Secret areas often hold medipacks and ammunition
One of them's behind a timed door: take a running jump onto the grey pressure pad on the ledge across the gap from the Thor switch, and that opens a secret door down on the bottom level. It shuts again after about 17 seconds, so leg it.
Saving
Saves are unlimited in Tomb Raider I Remastered, so lean on them. Save:
- Before a difficult jump
- Before you head into a new room
- After you pick up anything important
- Before and after a fight
Keep Your Eyes Open
- Look up and down often, the path you want is frequently above or below you
- Listen for audio cues, they flag traps, enemies and secrets
- Check corners and alcoves for hidden pickups
- Watch the architecture for visual hints
If You're Stuck
- Check your inventory for which keys you've actually got
- Go back over every floor of the main chamber for a switch you missed
- Check you've flipped every switch for the keys you've already picked up
- Check you've opened every door you can reach
Four rooms, four keys, and a lot of vertical space in between. That's the Folly.