Rise of the Tomb Raider – Flooded Archives, The Cathedral, Find the Atlas

This portion of the Rise of the Tomb Raider walkthrough covers the Flooded Archives area, which includes the Cathedral. By the end of this section of the game, Lara Croft finds herself back in Geothermal Valley, but along the way you’ll come across multiple relics, including the Battle Standard and Ancient Dagger.

The Cathedral

Jump over to the horizontal wooden beam and move through the window and into the Cathedral. Circle around to the right and climb up the wooden board placed against the wall, then proceed to climb up to the rock wall above.

Keep climbing up until you have to move left, then drop down one beam and continue to the left to reach the next corridor. Climb up the board to the right, then move right along the beam above. Climb up onto the larger wooden beam, then jump and grapple to the white beam directly ahead. Continue to climb, then head through the doorway to the left.

After the first cut scene shoot both generators three times to continue with the cut scene. Following the second cut scene, turn around and run into the previous room to find a recorder on the ground. Take the wooden beam to the corner of the room if you need some herbs. Head in the opposite direction and through the crack in the wall to reach the next camp fire.

Glimpses

Your next task is to find a way down to the Archives. Examine the mural on the wall to increase your Greek knowledge, then head through the doorway to the left. Walk through all the burned bodies, then stand back and use a flame arrow to ignite the large pots at the end of the path.

The Atlas

Head down the stairs and look to the right to see more loot and a manuscript. Collect the loot then head in the opposite direction. Drop down to the platform below (not the ground floor), then move straight to the far side of the room and to the left when you reach the far wall. Now drop down to the ground and walk up the stairs to the right to initiate another cut scene.

A slew of Trinity soldiers attack once you grab the artifact. Take them down, then move into the next room to engage several more soldiers. Once they’re down, even more soldiers will flood in through the closed gate directly ahead. There are plenty of large pots that will explode if fired upon. Wait until your enemies are near these pots, then ignite them to inflict considerable damage. You can also use the bottles and cans to make Molotov Cocktails and smoke bombs to help you clear the soldiers.

Dark Waters

Once the soldiers are down, head through the doorway and into the water-filled corridor ahead. Quickly move through the water, avoiding the explosions happening above. Surface once, then after the next short cut scene don’t worry about surfacing again. Just swim through the water as quickly as possible and you’ll get to watch another cut scene once you’ve gone far enough.

Acquire the Rebreather (oxygen mask) during the cut scene and you can now swim underwater for an indefinite period of time without taking any damage. Continue to swim through the water-filled corridors until you finally surface again, then swim left to get out of the water.

Rising Tide

Climb out of the water and use flame arrows to shoot the explosive barrels at the base of the large statue. This destroys one of three bases that are keeping the statue standing upright. You need to destroy the other two before you can move on.

There’s a camp fire around to the left but you need to go right and move around behind your present location to find a wooden ramp-like structure holding more explosive barrels. Aim your rope and bow at the front of the structure to release a single barrel. Stand near the barrels and shoot rope at the wooden scale in the middle of the water. This attacks one side of the scale to the barrel. Now you can kick the barrel into the water.

Repeat this process with a second barrel and attach it to the opposite side of the scale, then push it into the water. Now shoot the scale once again, this time simply pulling the rope to rotate the scale so one of the barrels moves to the far side. Move around to the barrel on the far side, cut the rope and push it into the water, toward the statue.

Shoot the barrel once it settles next to the statue to destroy the second base. Head back to the camp fire and from there you can proceed directly to the next objective or gather some loot in the area first. If you wish to proceed to the next objective, you’ll find another barrel holder in the far right corner of this large room. However, if you want the loot continue down the stairs directly ahead and up to the slightly elevated area. Don’t go left or right, instead keep moving forward up the next flight of broken stairs and drop down into the water below.

Continue around the corner to the left and swim under the wood blocking your path into the next room. Several Trinity soldiers guard the room. You can take all of them down by swimming directly under there and initiating a stealth kill.

Once all of the enemies are down, climb up out of the water and onto the walkway in the center of the room. Circle around to the right, collecting loot as you go. Climb up the ladder over the water way you used to enter the room. You can use a rope to pull down the wooden blockade to the immediate right once you reach the top of the ladder. This leads to a room with Ancient Coins in the far left corner.

Move down the corridor in the far right side of the room, then examine the map in the far left corner of the next room you come across. Continue through the doorway in the far left corner and use the grapple to move across to the far side.

Directly ahead is a spike trap, so be ready to shoot to traps down if you go that way. To the right is another room. Use rope to pull down the wooden blockade in the corner of the room to open up a shortcut back to the main room, then proceed down the hallway where the spike trap is located and open the item box at the end of the hallway on the left to find a Battle Standard relic. Head back to the previous room where you created a shortcut back to the main area, then drop down through the opening you created to find the barrel holder mentioned earlier.

Stand on the edge of the stream so you can shoot the opening to the barrel holder. The barrel will stop at the wooden blockade in the middle of the stream. Shoot the barrel with your shotgun to clear the blockade, but before you release a second barrel make sure you’re standing on the east side of the stream (the side with a rope pole).

Release the second barrel, then quickly attach it to the rope pole or shoot it with the rope and pull it toward you so the barrel avoids the fire on the west side of the stream. If you attached it to the pole, cut the rope once the barrel is clear of the fire. Once the barrel reaches the statue, shoot it to bring the statue down so you can continue with your journey.

Escape the Archive

Quickly run away from the enemies attacking you and up the stairs to the left. Climb up the wall then continue to jump and climb until you reach the top. Once beam will fall so you’ll have to jump at one point during your climb. Remember to use your grapple as you move through this area, running from the enemies.

When you reach the small rock wall, move left and continue to climb to the platform above. Run down the path and jump onto the hanging crate, then continue to the adjacent beam and eventually over to the nearby wall. Climb up to the top and keep running. Every time you jump over a gap use the grapple to cross.

Once you start sliding down the water you’re safe from the people chasing you. Swim through the area, squeezing through the rocks between swimming sections. When you reach the end, climb out of the water and collect the Ancient Coins to the left. Head right and open the strongbox at the end of the corridor to find a Break-Action Shotgun piece. Examine the mural on the left wall of the next corridor then continue down the stairs and up the rock wall at the end of the area.

Geothermal Valley (cont.)

The Gathering

Head out of the cave and down the path to the right. Pass by the lookout and grapple across the gap where the tree is located. Continue along the grassy path and across the river. To the right is another camp fire for base camp, with a nice helping of loot surrounding it. To the left is your next destination point and straight ahead you can use a grenade arrow to clear the wooden blockage to find an Ancient Dagger relic just beyond. Be sure to stop at the camp fire and collect the relic before you move toward the destination point. It triggers a cut scene that leaves you back at the Soviet Installation.

Continue on to the next section (coming soon!) or head back to our Rise of the Tomb Raider game hub for more tips and tricks to get through the game.