Thief — an All Difficulty Level complete-loot walkthrough (Original Thief and Thief Gold)

This mission uses a version number (starting with 1.0) independent of the main document.

After completing two missions, I am grateful that the missions are linked together with a storyline. Not strong, but much better than 12 unrelated missions.

In this mission, there are quite some differences in location of treasures among various Difficuty Levels. Choose the difficulty drop box and the walkthrough will adjust accordingly.

At several places, additional information is available as tool tips. Usually they are the books and scrolls you can read. Move the mouse on the words looking like theseInformation will appear as tooltips like this to see them.

There is nothing to pick (that counts toward the pick count in the mission statistic) in this mission.

In this mission, different difficulty levels have access to very different amount of powerups (in later missions, the difference tends to become much smaller). This walkthrough has included the powerups and loots for all three difficulty levels. The two versions (Thief Dark Project and Thief Gold) also has a slight difference in loot location.

Since you do not need to leave the Bonehoard at Normal Difficulty, the sequence of places to visit is slightly different. This is necessary to make sure you get everything before the mission suddenly ends — the mission completes when you fulfil all your objectives, it does not care whether you have collected all the loots or seen all the places. Therefore, some places that Hard and Expert players will visit on their way out of must be visited in advance by Normal players. During the walkthrough, you will be directed to jump forward and back (following hyperlinks) as required. Once you correctly set the difficulty level and version information in the drop boxes above, the cumulative loot and pick count will be adjusted to follow you jumping around.

The only thing Cutty left for you is the knowledge about the fabled Horn of Quintus, something that you can sell at a good price to Burrick hunters. Besides the Horn, you can also find other treasures in the Bonehoard. This includes the remains of the Builder’s First Apprentice, whose bones resisted corrosion and have turned into gold. As for his heart and soul, the Clever Mystic captured them in two magical gems somewhere in the Bonehoard.

When you picked up this game, probably you did not think of it as a Tomb Raider. But now you are asked to steal from tombs. And meet Zombies and the just-as-annoying Burricks. And the Zombies here are frightening, not like those lame ones in the mine. This is the first mission that is really difficult to complete without a walkthrough. The main problem is getting lost. Once you know the whereabouts of everything, it is not difficult to complete the mission without killing anything.

I have completely forgotten about this when I firt wrote the walkthrough 20 years ago. You are meeting Burricks for the first time! A Burrick looks like a tiny but overweight T-Rex. It has a poisonous belch. While you can easily Blackjack a Burrick, it is tough to handle using Broadhead Arrows. It runs away after a few shots. If you hunt it down, it takes several more shots to finish the job.

Dead or unconscious, you cannot carry a Burrick body. That means other Burricks may notice and get angry. Worse, its huge body may block you passage!

In this mission, Experts will meet a Hammer Haunt for the first time. It is only a brief encounter. You will really face them heads on in Mission 7: The Haunted Cathedral.

Thief Gold players at Experts and Hard Difficulties will also see the Fire Shadow, a new AI introduced in Thief Gold.

Your obvious choice is to buy all Holy Water vials and Water Arrows. I do not know what to do with the remaining cash. Some Health Vials perhaps, or a few Noisemaker Arrows or just throw it away.

I heard that this mission received lots of complaints (and praises) for being too difficult to survive. To make your visit more pleasant, Thief Gold has more Water Arrows to pick up than in Original Thief. Players at Normal or Hard Difficulties even have an additional vial of Holy Water for them to collect.

When you start, you are outside the Bonehoard entrance, under the starry night sky. To your right (North) is a mausoleum with a sarcophagus, but there is nothing useful up there. In front of you (to your West), the stone building behind a pair of pillars (which used to be the gate) is the Bonehoard entrance. You can see a Zombie Possum lying in front of the left pillar (the one with a lamp). Behind the left pillar, you can see another mausoleum higher up on the slope. We’ll visit that mausoleum first.

Walk on the right side of the right pillar to keep your distance from the Zombie Possum. Climb the slope on the right of Bonehoard entrance. Walk along the hill to enter the mausoleum on the slope. Take the on the floor next to the sarcophagus. Descend to the Bonehoard entrance. Run towards the hanging rope to climb down.

Move down to some planks. Ignore the noisy Zombie below. Walk to the North side to have a look at the next room. Just take note of the layout of the North Room. Do not bother to climb down even though the ceiling is wood. We shall visit North Room later.

Come back to South Room. Locate the rope hanging in the midst of the planks. Save game, climb down slowly and stop midway to study the room.

Jump from the rope to the middle ledge of the North wall. Run towards the lowest ledge so that you drop squarely on it. Now wait. Unlike while you are on the rope, the Zombie now likes to walk under your ledge. At Expert and Hard Difficulties, jump forward and run to the Southeast corner when the Zombie is out of your way. Turn 180° and run into the dark corridor there.

For Normal Difficulty Level, jump forward and run to the small room on the South when the Zombie is out of your way. Take the sitting on the sarcophagus. Run back out (avoiding the Zombie) and turn right to get into the dark corridor at the Southeast corner.

In the dark corridor, run up the stairs ahead to the top. At the T-junction, turn left and continue running. Soon you will see a familiar room on your left. You are now at the North wall of the North room. We shall get downstairs later, so do not jump or climb down now. Continue forward, and at the end turn left up the stairs.

At the dead end, you find the first dead thief (Sutter). Read the Red Book on the floor I’ve had enough. If Felix wants to stay and be killed,
that’s his business, but the pay’s not good enough to keep me down here
a minute more. We already lost Dranko to those damn belching burricks,
and Marcus didn’t make the jump across that huge chasm. He probably drowned,
if he wasn’t dashed to bits. (I thought about looking for his body, as he
was carrying some loot from a poorly-guarded tomb, but it wasn’t worth the
risk.)

Then we watched Cather get filled with arrows from a clever trap in one of
those great octagonal vaults. Not that I cared one whit for Cather, the
bastard, but I have no intention of ending up the same way.
——
I don’t expect I’ll see Felix again. He seemed sure that the Horn of Quintus
was somewhere north of the Vaults, but I think that was just a guess. (I
thought those strange X-shaped marks off that branch of the burrick tunnels
were worth investigating, but Felix said they were irrelevant.) Anyway,
if the traps and zombies don’t get him, the burricks will. Those tunnels
were a nightmare. At least our marks were mostly still intact.

I’m almost out, but I need to sleep. I think the place I’ve found is out
of the way enough that the zombies won’t find me. . It talks about another group of thieves that tried to find the Horn. Sutter came with Felix (who learnt about the Horn and has escaped from the Cragscleft Prison) and at least 3 other thieves. They entered the Hall from the North, travelling in a direction opposite to what we will be doing. In panic, Sutter left Felix and escaped up here to hide from the Zombies.

The two sentences in brackets about Marcus do not appear in Normal Difficulty. Marcus has been tracking Adolpho. Adolpho is a famous thief who came here looking for the Mystic’s Soul (which is not available in Normal Difficulty). Sutter wrote that Marcus didn’t make the jump across that huge chasm and that Marcus had with him some loots from a poorly-guarded tomb. I was furious to find out later that no treasure is around the dead body of Marcus. And there are no Burricks nearby who could have swallowed the loots, maybe they have dissolved in water.

Then Sutter said that Cather is filled with arrows... octagonal vaults. Since they arrived from the other direction and Cather died after crossing the huge chasm, it means we should meet Cather before arriving at the huge chasm ourselves.

Also mentioned is the strange X-shaped marks... worth investigating, an obvious hint for something important. This sentence is only available in Expert Difficulty. The 3 X-shaped marks lead you to another hint for getting the Mystic’s Heart, which is only available in Expert Difficulty.

If you are playing Normal or Hard Difficulties, get the near Sutter’s skull.

Go back to the T-junction to follow the other path. Turn left and run down a slope and drop to a lower level.

After the drop, you can go either left or right. Turn right. You soon arrive at the collapsed entrance of Alarus. Refer to your map: neither Alarus Extension nor Edine Wing is accessible. Get the Healing Potion on the floor hidden behind the Alarus plaque. While Normal and Hard Difficulties can pick up (in the whole mission) 6 and 4 vials of Healing Potion respectively, this is the only one for Experts.

Go back and take the other path (South). After a turn, you arrived at the North Room, the room that you have seen many times from above. It is empty, so go to the near corner on your right (Northwest corner) to find two exits.

Take the exit on the left to follow a straight dark passage going South. At the end, you arrive at a small ledge. Recognise the three ledges on the North? You are in the South Room, on top of the doorway leading to the small room. Remember the hole on the South wall? Turn to face the hole and crouch. There is a Chest inside, right click to get 8 Water Arrows. Go back to North room and take the other exit.

Take the stairs up and continue until you see a side branch on your left. The side branch leads to a Holy Water Font, but there is no Zombie nearby. For Normal Difficulty Level, there are a vial of Holy Water and a Healing Potion here.

Continue the only way to a room with some steps in front of you. There is something on top of one of the sarcophagi on your right, but look carefully at the floor to locate the pressure plates. Throw some corpse parts at the trap to see how it works. Move along the wall to avoid the trap and get the . When playing Normal or Hard Difficulties, get also the vial of Healing Potion on top of the lower sarcophagus.

Climb the steps to the next room. There is a Hammer Zombie Possum on the floor. Climb the rope on your left down to the next level.

Down there, go to the room on the South. The room has a Zombie Possum at the far end. To his East, the wall has a hole containing a Chest. But first take a look at the next room on the East. There is another Zombie Possum guarding a small pool.

Back to the room on the West. Heath Campbell showed me how to open the Chest without stirring up the Zombie Possum. Slowly inch towards the Chest while staying flat against the East wall. Lean towards the chest and turn your head until you can highlight it. If it is not close enough, move another inch. This way, you can open the chest and get the without getting too close to the Zombie Possum.

After you got the Gemstone, return to rope and continue North. This room has an unguarded pool. This area has a total of three connected pools, and you have seen two of them.

Dive into the pool and swim North until you reach a junction. Turn right and dive all the way to the end. Surface and look around. You arrived at the small guarded pool. Take the on top of the sarcophagus and the Zombie Possum won’t notice.

Return to the pool, dive back to the junction. Turn right to continue North. When you resurface, mantle on the South side. Two Chests are facing each other, with skeletons around and emitter holes at their base. I guess the the skeleton belongs to the late Cather, who got filled with arrows from a clever trap . Actually you can assume nearly anything unguarded as trapped (because AIs cannot avoid traps so they do not patrol trapped areas). Therefore, stand next to the Chests (that is, not between them) to avoid the arrows shooting out from the emitter. Open the left Chest for a Speed Potion, and get 6 Fire Arrows from the right Chest.

Move to the other side of the pool and find a ladder leading down. Note the pressure plate at the bottom of the ladder. If you stand on it, a boulder would drop on your head. So climb down and jump away from the ladder before you step on the trap. Or you can give it a try. The boulder takes some time to arrive, so you can run away before it hits you.

Enter the hole on the wall. Pass from the grey tunnel to the rusty red tunnel. Notice the arrow mark on the tunnel wall. It is pointing backwards because the other group was travelling in the reverse direction. After a left turn, slow down when you cross two boulders, and stop at the pair of Glowing Mushrooms.

A Burrick is patroling the grey tunnel ahead. Save and wait till it walks to your right (you can Blackjack it but it is not necessary). Run into the grey tunnel, turn left and drop through the hole on the ground.

In this tunnel, you are safe from the Burrick above, but as you can see, the tunnel ends in the Great Burrick Cave. Peek into the cave. You are overlooking a large round cave with some giant barriers at the centre. It has several openings, and we will visit each one of them. Look at your right, you can see an arrow mark on the wall, indicating that the Sutter group arrived from the Great Burrick Cave.

Turn around to go the other direction. Move past the plank placed by the Sutter group for climbing up to the Upper Vault. Continue South till the end of the tunnel, where you arrive at a big hole on the ground. Resurface after a deep deep fall.

Head to a flooded room on the Southwest. Climb the stairs to a room: see the pressure plates on the floor and the emitter holes on the wall? You can pick up the corpse parts and play with the traps, but stay clear! Walk diagonally across to avoid the pressure plates.

There you find Adolpho and his . Remember Adolpho, the famous thief who came here looking for the Mystic’s Soul? If playing Normal Difficulty, Adolpho has also a left for you. If playing Hard or Expert, read the Papyrus next to him I’ve decided to take the plunge. If my records are correct, there
should be a stash of fire crystals in the lowest oubliette, which was sealed
for centuries but has been since opened up by the burricks. I’ll need the
crystals for the torches, if I’m going to get the Mystic’s Soul. , giving you a hint that you should preserve some (actually five) Fire Arrows to light up torches in order to get the Mystic’s Soul. When playing Normal, you cannot find the Mystic’s Soul, and therefore you are not given this hint.

Collect the six Fire Arrows on the table, but note the pressure plate in front of it. Look at the walls on your left and right. Arrows will shoot from the small square holes when you step on the plate. Therefore, lean forward to grab the arrows.

Leave the way you came. Swim across to the Northeast and mantle onto the tunnel. Run all the way to the end (it is a long climb), which takes you to another opening of the Great Burrick Cave.

At the end of the tunnel, save and look down. You can see a tunnel opening on your right at the ground level. On top of the tunnel opening is the first strange X-shaped marks... worth investigating for the Experts. The X-shaped Marks are not visible at Normal or Hard Difficulties. When the Burricks are away to the left, drop and run into that opening. Run forward until you reach a 4-Way Junction.

Turn left (ie go West) and continue. After a left turn, the West Tunnel goes South and up. For Thief Gold players, you see several Glowing Mushrooms, some skeletons, and a . For Thief Dark Project, you find instead a second left turn that goes East and up to a T-junction. At the junction, the left hand side is a dead end. Turn right and look down to pick up the among the skeletons. If you continued to the right, the tunnels ends with a big hole where you would fall down to the Great Burrick Cave, taking away at least half your life. Maybe the hole is considered too dangerous, and is removed from Thief Gold.

After you have got the Silver Nugget, return to the 4-Way Junction. Follow the East Tunnel (ie go straight ahead). Just before the first pair of Glowing Mushrooms you can see the second X-shaped mark on the ground. Continue forward and you find a side tunnel on your left, leading down to a cave with several dead burricks. We will visit them on our return trip. When you reach another pair of Glowing Mushrooms on the ground, continue to walk forward three more steps. Look down on the ground. It is very difficult to see unless you know it is here: it is the third X-shaped mark. Save game. Continue forward and near the end is a side branch leading down your right.

A live Burrick is down there. Draw your Sword and run to its side. Keep slashing it and stay on its side (so it cannot breath towards you). When it is dead, jump and climb the rope behind it to a room with many statues.

There are no traps here, only another dead thief. Experts can read the Papyrus next to his body It appears I was wrong about the Mystic’s Heart, and I will
die for my mistake. The ancient tablet I found said that the Heart would
be in “a room of statues, whose gaze is death,” but though there are
statues here, it’s clear to me now that this is not that place. I dare not
go back down — the burricks prowl below in numbers, angered at my intrustion.
Unless they leave, I will starve in this Godforsaken place. , giving you a hint about the danger involved when going for the Mystic’s Heart. At Expert Difficulty, you only have 6 Water Arrows here. If you were playing lower Difficulty Levels, collect also a and a .

Retrace your steps back to the side tunnel we ignored earlier. It leads to a cave with several dead Burricks. Avoid the Fly Swarms and leave via the other opening of the cave. The right hand side (North) is a dead end. Go the other way, and you soon return to the 4-Way Junction from the North.

So you have seen all paths from the 4-Way Junction. Continue forward (ie go South) to return to the opening (of the Great Burrick Cave) and get ready for some running.

The Great Burrick Cave has many openings: the opening from the Upper Vaults, the opening from Lowest Oubliet, the hole at the ceiling (Thief Dark Project only), the opening with X-shaped Mark (where you are now at), and the opening for Huge Chasm (the one we are now heading to). Look West to locate a Fly Swarm above a dead Burrick. Above them, you should see a green patch of ceiling and a green patch of wall. The green ceiling is a large area on which you can use a Rope Arrows, and the green wall is our destination, the opening for Huge Chasm.

It is easier to run clockwise in the cave than to run directly towards it. Look South and up to find the opening you dropped from. Run towards it, then turn right (West) to follow the two Glowing Mushrooms on the ground. Ignore the path on your right (it is a path through the central barrier) and run up the slope. This area is dark. Stick to the wall on your right so that the Burricks would not walk onto you. You may also try to knock the Burricks here.

On your left is the tunnel from Upper Vaults, and you can see the lone Burrick up there. Continue West until you reach the end of the shadows. Look North around the corner. Locate the metre long red stone lying on the ground, and the green tunnel opening above it. There is a rope dangling outside the tunnel opening, but it is very difficult to spot.

When the Burricks are out of the way, run towards the red stone. When you reach a pair of Glowing Mushrooms, note the arrow marks on the ground. Also take a quick look to your right: there is a passage into the central barrier, but offers nothing except a skeleton. At the red stone, note the arrow mark pointing downards. Climb up the slope and find two more arrow marks on the ground. At a point, the slope becomes too steep to climb. Turn to the rope and jump to it. Climb up and jump into the tunnel opening. Follow the short tunnel to the Huge Chasm.

Now to the home of our undead friends. The octagonal halls here are very disorienting, so I included a simplified map here:

Level 1 (ground level):

As maps usually do, North side is up, and East is on the right hand side.

The alphabet on the left and the digit on the top are for coordinate references. It starts with B2 because we do not have access to row A or column 1 on level 1.

Let me start explaining the naming from the SE corner (the point of our arrival), first work towards the West and then proceed towards the North. It may be confusing because you haven’t yet seen any of the rooms, but the explanation here serves to help to identify which room is which in the remaining sections. After explaining the map, you start visiting the rooms in .

• We starts at Start Hall (D5), which is connected to D4.
• The unnamed hall at D4 is largely occupied by four large columns, leaving two intersecting corridors at the centre.
• The Stairs Hall at D3 is the only hall with a staircase (or rather, a big stairwell), spiraling down to the Flooded Area below. If you jump into the Flooded Area (there are two other halls with access to the Flooded Area), the only way out is via this staircase. Fortunately, the Zombies seldom cluster around here to ambush you. Instead, their favorite location is around the Door Room.
• Ladder-Bridge Hall at D2 has a narrow bridge across a pool of water, and at the end of the bridge is a single ladder climbing up. It is the second of the three halls with access to the Flooded Area.
• Golden Bone Room at D1 is not where the Golden Bones are (well two of them are there), but where you should place them. The room is not accessible from level 1. We shall climb down there from the Hammer Graves at 2D1.
• Cave Hall at C4 is enclosed on all sides, with a single opening towards the unnamed hall at D4. It is not a good name. The hall is very tall, and does not look like a cave at all. The curved narrow hallway on its outside traps many Zombies and makes moving around very difficult. The entrance to Door Room and 4 Ladder Hall are both found along this curved narrow hallway.
• Door Room at C3 is the only hall with a door. The loot inside this room is the most difficult to get. Note that the tiny space between the door and the hallway is dark enough for hiding.
• Pool Hall at C2 has nothing but a big pool, with a circular ledge surrounding it. The burrick caves lead to a big hole below the ledge. The pool below is actually one of three connected, submerged Flooded Area.
• 2 Pillar Hall at B4 has two pillars in the middle (or 3, if you count the pillar integrated with the wall), supporting the Y-shaped catwalk above.
• 4 Ladder Hall at B3 is accessed from a dark tunnel next to the door of Door Room. 4 Ladder Hall is one of the good places to run to, because Zombies do not climb ladders. Moreover, two of the ladders lead to the Fireball Room above, which is another safe location for you.
• Ramp Hall at B2 is obvious. It has a great ramp leading to Level 2. Yes, Zombies can climb the ramp, provided that you tease them properly. They do not have a brain so they always walk towards you in a straight line (if they see you at all). Why should I want to tease them up the ramp? It is because the Fireball Room above is an excellant Zombie killer!

Reader Andrew Shaffer taught me an effective way to gather the Zombies for killing. Go to the Stairs Hall and mantle on the railing surrounding the stairwell. Now the Zombies can’t hurt you any more!

Once in the invulnerable position, all you need to do is to attract the Zombies to gather around you. This is not simple, because they usually stop walking as soon as you are out of sight. There are around 11 Zombies in this level, plus a handful of Zombie Possums. It is easy to gather 7 or 8 Zombies into the hall, but it is best if you can gather as many as you can. It is best if you run around the halls to wake up the Zombie Possums, and attract all the Zombies to follow you here, before you mantle up the railing.

When you are satisfied with the population, save game and start using Holy Water. You can typically kill all the Zombies you have gathered using just two vials of Holy Water. There is little need to wipe out every one of them. Zombies are such slow creatures that you can easily run past, as long as you are not cornered by them.

Reader Commander Robey taught me an even more effective way to gather the Zombies for killing. Similar to Andrew Shaffer, he started with mantling on the railing surrounding the stairwell of the Stairs Hall. His insight is to locate a particular spot at in inside corner of the railing. You may have to cross the corner a few times to get it accurately. Quick save beforehand, in case you fall. When you are at the right position, the zombies will start walking again. They will go down the steps and congregate under where you are standing. Even zombies you do not see will come out. CommanderRobey also prepared a video showing how to do it, called “Meeting Adjourned”.

You can even leave them there (for a few seconds), run inside the Cave Hall, wake up the five Zombie Possums here (guarding the Golden Bone), and get back to the railing. This way, those five will also join the party of eleven downstairs.

With the zombies crowded togehter, you can easily finish all of them using a couple of Fire Arrows or Holy Water vials.

Odyseeos reminded me that there is another way to wipe out the Zombies. When you explore Level 2, you’ll find the Fireball Room. Just lead a handful of Zombies to follow you up the great ramp of the Ramp Hall to the Fireball Room, and the fire balls will bring them down for you.

Go back to the corridor on the left of Cave Hall. Go forward but ignore the Door Room on your left. Continue until you see a doorway on your left (if you miss the doorway, you would eventually arrive at the 2 Pillar Hall) opening to a corridor with gold yellow walls.

Follow the dark and narrow corridor into the 4-Ladder Hall. Refer to the map: this hall (1B3) is actually between Ramp Hall 1B2 and 2 Pillar Hall 1B4. And it is the dark narrow corridor that blocks one of the pathway between these two halls, producing two dangerous blind alleys.

In the centre of this hall is a Hammer Zombie Possum. Avoid him and climb the (West) ladder opposite the entrance. At the top, turn left to get a on the sarcophagus.

Climb down the ladder and climb the one on your left (North ladder). And you find that it goes through the ceiling to the room above. If you are playing Normal or Hard Difficulty, study the middle sarcophagus on your left. A is there, though not easy to make out even when you are staring at it.

Climb through the ceiling and we arrived on Level 2.

We will visit the upper levels en route when we are moving to our four destinatins: Horn of Quintus, Mystic’s Heart, Mystic’s Soul, and finally the Exit. Their maps are grouped together under one heading. In this section, we briefly talked about all the halls in the Upper Levels. In the remaining 4 sections, we will visit the four destinations one by one.

First we look at the map of Level 2, starting from the Ramp-Hall (2B2, now with a leading 2 because we are on level 2 now), because it is the natural starting point of level 2 (although we did not really start there).

• There is nothing in Ramp Hall Level 2. Just that the big ramp joining the two levels.
• Fireball Room (2B3) emits a fireball regularly towards its entrance, which is next to the top of the ramp. It is a good place to kill any Zombie who wants to follow you to level 2. Or you may wake up the Zombie Possum at the top of the ramp and lead him here to rid of him. Two of the ladders leads down to 4 Ladder Hall.
• Y Hall (2B4) has only a Y-shaped catwalk on level 2. It is an important octagonal vault. Below, there are two pillars on level 1 supporting this catwalk (2 Pillar Hall at 1B4). Above, a slanted walkway leads from level 3 (3B4-S, connecting to Spiral Hall at 3C4) to level 4 (4B4-N, 4 Pillar Hall).
• From Y Hall, you can jump to Marad at 2A4 for a tiny loot. It is disappointing to find so little there, maybe it is what is left after having robbed by Felix, or maybe this is the poorly-guarded tomb robbed by Marcus. The side branch of the Y connects to the Spiral Hall (2C4).
• X Hall (2B5) has two slanted walkways perpendicular to each other (that is why I called it X). The first one (2B5→3B5) leads from level 2 (2B5-W, connecting to the catwalk of the Y Hall) to level 3 (3B5-E), where a circular ledge joins it to the other slanted walkway. The second one (3B5→4B5) leads from there (3B5-S) to level 4 (4B5-N), connecting to the 3 Pillar Room at 4A5. The base of the second slanted walkway (3B5-S) also leads to the exit of the Bonehoard. Down below, the level 1 of X Hall is an isolated, inaccessible (unless you want to get trapped there), dark and empty hall.
• E Hall (2C2) looks like the letter E: a semicircular ledge with a walkway attached to the middle. Since it is above the Pool Hall, you can see the Flooded Area if you look down. From the top of the Ramp Hall ramp, go right (jump over the Zombie Possum) and you arrive at the Northeast part of this E Hall. From E Hall, you can access the O Hall (2D2) to the South via the semicircular ledge, and the I Hall (2C3) to the East via the walkway in the middle.
• I Hall (2C3) has a single walkway like the letter I. Below it is the roof of Door Room (1C3). The walkway goes slightly uphill, and from it you can run and jump to the Spiral Hall at 2C4.
• Spiral Hall (2C4) has a spiraling ledge from level 2 (joining the side branch of the catwalk of Y Hall) going counterclockwise (nearly a full circle) up to level 3 (joining the slanted walkway of 3B4→4B4 at 3B4-S). If you do not want to jump over the Zombie Possum next to the top of the Ramp, you can access the E Hall by going to Y Hall, Spiral Hall and I Hall.
• O Hall (2D2) is a circular ledge around a hollow column. Inside the column is the ladder of Ladder-Bridge Hall (1D2). The O Hall joins the E Hall on the North, to the Hammer Graves on the West, and the 5-Torches Room on the South.
• Hammer Graves (2D1) has a great hammer image on the floor. Two ladders there go down to the Golden Bone Room (D1).
• 5 Torches Room at 2E2 has five torches and five doors keeping five Zombies.
• Soul Hall at 2F2 holds the Mystic’s Soul. Climb back via 3E2 to leave.

• After you climbed the ramp of Ramp Hall (from 1B2 to 2B2) and then the ladder outside the Fireball Room (2B3 to 3B3), turn around and jump to the circular ledge of the unnamed hall 3B2. Look down the big hole at the centre and you see the ramp below. Go West to the Burrick Hall.
• The Burrick Hall has a lone Burrick at the centre. Further West is the vault to the Mystic’s Heart.
• From the Spiral Hall, you ascend from level 2 (2C4) to level 3 (3C4). On level 3 here, you can pass from Spiral Hall to 3B4-S (slanted walkway above Y-Hall) to climb up to level 4 (4B4-N).
• X Hall (3B5) has two slanted walkways perpendicular to each other. The first one goes West and leads down to level 2 (2B5-W), and is joint to the Y Hall (2B4). The other goes North and leads up to level 4 (4B5-N), connecting to the 3 Pillar Room at 4A5. Finally, you can leave X Hall on the South, leading to the exit of the Bonehoard (which is the entry used by the Felix group).
• The Face Room is the one with a Face (with two Gemstone eyes). It is not connected to other rooms of Level 3, and you have to get there via the 3 Pillar Room (4B6) on Level 4.
• 3E2 is a tunnel above the 5 Torches Room.
• Although I marked 3C5 as the Exit, it isn’t. However, the path starting here leads all the way to the exit, without passing anything of interest.

• From 3B4-S, you can climb to the 4 Pillar Hall at 4B4-N via the slanted walkway. Leave via the North exit to find the Horn of Quintus.
• From 3B5-S, you can climb to 4B5-N via the slanted walkway, leading to the 3 Pillar Room where you can use a Rope Arrow to climb down to the Face Room below.

Carefully leave the Fireball Room and go left when outside the doorway. You will see a ladder at the top of the great ramp. There is a Zombie Possum on the other side of the ladder. You should be able to finish the mission without waking him up. It is also a good idea to wake him and and invite him to the Fireball Room.

Also, you may try to lure all the Zombies downstairs up the ramp to the fireball trap. To do so, remember that Zombies goes directly at you. You have to attract them to walk to the base of the ramp, and then attract them up the ramp. At the top of the ramp, turn left and run across the trap, waiting for the Zombie to be blasted.

Climb the ladder to the top and turn around. Once on the circular ledge, turn around to look at the the vault to the left of the ladder. You can see another platform at about your height, a statue and a hallway opening. That is the way to Quintus, our destination in the next section.

For now, leave the circular ledge at the Northwest (the only exit) to the Burrick Hall. There is a Burrick in the room at the centre of the hall. When playing at Expert Difficulty Level, the room is empty so you can run along the slopes on either side of the hall and avoid the Burrick (keep running and it will ignore you). On the other side of the hall, following the corridor to the end (do not fall!). Then skip the next two paragraphs and continue with the .

When playing Normal or Hard Difficulty Levels, you need to Blackjack the Burrick to get two it is guarding. Do not bother to douse the Torches. Since the Burrick is facing this side, use the slopes on the right to move to the other side of the hall. Crawl towards its tail and knock it down.

On the other side of the hall is a door that would not open. The door leads to the Mystic’s Heart, which is not part of your mission objectives. Players of Hard Difficulty Level can only go back down the ladder (to the top of the ramp) and skip to the .

Players of Normal Difficulty Level however must not get the Horn of Quintus so early. Since it is the only mission objective for you, the game ends as soon as you lay hands on the Horn. You must always visit places and get all treasures before you try to achieve the last objective. Therefore, go back down the ladder, then go past the doorway of the Fireball Room. At the 2B4 Y Hall, take the side branch on the right to arrive at the 2C4 Spiral Hall. Skip forward . You will visit the remaining rooms in the sections “Mystic’s Soul” and “Leaving” before heading for the Horn.

Look down the vault of bridges and fireball traps. There are several beams to help you descend to the bottom of the vault, but fireballs are flying in many directions. Keep making saved games when you make progress: it is too easy to fall or be killed by the fireballs.

Walk to the centre of the top beam and turn right to face North. Look at the next beam below. Fireballs shoot regularly from the North end to the South end. When a fireball passed you, drop to that beam and run to the North end. Quickly drop from the left side of the beam to the ledge below the North end of the beam.

Turn to face the West end of the small ledge. Run and jump to the small platform. Fireballs shoot at the wall a little ahead. Time and jump to the beam (on your West side) beyond the fireball.

The West beam is safe, so save your game and move to its centre. Face East and look down on the next beam. This is the most difficult jump. Time the fireballs shooting from West (below you) along the next beam. Drop on the beam below. You do not have a lot of time and thus you should jump early (when you fall to it, the fireball will have travelled several metres). Run forward (East) along the East-West beam to the centre of the beam. Strafe and drop on the North-South beam below, which is perpendicular to the beam you are on. This is the tough part, because you have to do it at the right time, and you do not have the time to aim, because the next fireball is coming. However, it is not that high and you usually will not receive any damage from the fall.

Fortunately it is the last beam. Walk to the South end and drop to the floor or drop to either pedestal. Proceed to the next hall.

How shall we get back to the top? Let’s worry about it later.

Before you enter the hall, read the Floor PlateHe upon whom the gaze of the Guardians falls, he shall be destroyed. on the floor. Actually you have read another thief wrote a room of statues, whose gaze is death when you were in the . Each status stands on a sharp triangular base, and if a triangle points to you, you are roasted (a fast energy ball flies at you). It is OK if there is a pillar between you and the triangle (so that you are hidden from the gaze of the Guardians). Therefore, the statues and pillars form invisible lines that you cannot cross.

If you need help to pass through this hall, refer to my hand-drawn sketch. The red circles are pillars, red lines are lines-of-sight of the Guardians. You enter from the top (North) and leave on the bottom (South). Follow the green path to avoid the Guardians.

The next hall looks empty, but do not enter yet. You can see four statues (they are not guardians, at least not those who gaze) under spot lights. On the far end, you can see a white area: that is the exit of the hall. In front of the exit you can make out a dark object sitting on a grey stand. The dark object is a Blue Chest, not locked, containing the Mystic’s Heart.

First of all, save your game. Move quietly into the empty hall. Suddenly the spot lights changed, At the centre of the hall you can see a Hammer Haunt. He moves fast and is very good at the sword. Never underestimate Haunts.

Unfortunately your location is also under spot light. Move quickly to the shadows and hopefully the Hammer Haunt has not yet noticed you. You can now move slowly around the dark areas of the hall to get the Chest. Much simpler is to restore your game to the point before entering this hall. Just run into this hall, speeding towards the Chest. Run past the Hammer Haunt, it takes quite some time for him to see you and start running himself. Run up to the right side of the Chest, open it to get the . Continue running into the white area behind the Chest.

I think it is the only teleporter in the whole game you can use (there are other teleporters but you cannot use them yourself). Suddenly you are transported to the corridor leading to the vault with fireball traps. Turn left and go back to the Burrick Hall. Sneak past the Burrick again if you have not knocked it out. Get back down the ladder outside the circular ledge.

Reader P666 came up with a brilliant idea to handle the Hammer Haunt. After you triggered the spot lights of the Hall of Mystic’s Heart, go backwards (following again the winding path) to stand between the middle two of the four pillars. Make some noise so that the Hammer Haunt turns and looks for you (shoot a Broadhead Arrow at him if you so prefer). He will follow a straight line towards you. The “gaze of the Guardians” will then fall upon him and you can explore the hall in peace.

From the ladder, go past the doorway of the Fireball Room. Continue to the Y Hall where you can see a Y-shaped bridge. One path going directly ahead and in the middle of it a side branch goes to your right. Before you step on this Y bridge, look left. There is a ledge a little above you.

Save your game first. From where you are (the ledge on the West side of the Y bridge), do a running jump towards the edge on the ledge. Grab the ledge and mantle up. Enter the doorway there.

When done, go back to the ledge outside. At the West end, look Southwest to face the ledge you jumped from. Run towards it (without jumping) and you will land safely on it.

Once on the bridge you should hear other noisy fireballs, which are high above our heads (but Garrett is not capable of looking vertically up). Cross the Y Bridge but take the side branch on the right. It takes you into the Spiral Hall. Follow the spiral for a full circle to rise up to Level 3 (3B4-S). Take the ramp (which is on top of the Y Bridge) going North to Level 4 (4B4-N).

At the top are four poles emitting fireballs towards the left (counterclockwise), making the noise you have been hearing. Walk towards the pole in front of you (on the left side of the Torch), and stand on its right side (the side that is not firing). Now move between the pole and the vault wall. Walk along the wall, keeping the fireballs on your left and vault wall on your right. You find an opening on the wall. This is the only exit here, and the other poles are irrelevant.

Once you leave the circular platform, the fireballs stop. Follow the hallway till you meet the torch in front of a hallway. Sightly ahead is a statue: this is the statue and hallway opening you saw on your way to get the Mystic’s Heart. Turn right (North) into the hallway to the dead end. There is a big hole on your right. Into the Burricks terrain.

Since the Horn is soothing the Burricks, they are peaceful now. Do not try to Blackjack them because his noise will anger his friends. Just wander around and remember your way.

Descending from the tunnel you arrive at the Initial Cave. There are three big (and multiply connected) caves here and this is your first one. You see three exits from this cave: a wide one on the left (Big Cave), a narrow one (with a Barrack) in the middle (Star Cave), and an empty one on the right (Empty Cave). Go via the wide exit on the left into the Big Cave.

The Big Cave has lots of Burricks and two more exits (not including the one we come from). The rightmost one leads to the Star Cave, to which we will go later. For now, take the other exit.

Midway in the tunnel is a T-junction. If you continue forward, you arrive at the Star Cave. Instead, take the side branch on the left. It leads to a big but empty cave on the North. At the end, you exit the North Cave and arrive at an empty area with several Burricks on your right and a doorway (finally some human structure) on your left. Look at the plate on the right side of the doorway: this is Quintus.

Do not enter yet. You should first get familiar with the way out. Rehearse several times if you wish — you do not want to get lost among half a dozen Burricks when you are leaving.

Turn around. There are three ways to leave this area: via the tunnel on the right that you came from, via the central exit with two Burricks whose tails are pointing at you, and via the exit on the left with a single Burrick. It is not easy to leave the way we come from, because at one point on the way back it is difficult to climb quickly. The exit with two Burricks is a good choice, except that their fat body are blocking the exit. Enter the exit on the left. The single Burrick leaves you ample room to run past it when you are leaving.

Past the Burrick you arrive at a small empty cave. If you continue forward, it is a dead end. Once past the lone Burrick, leave via the only exit on your right, you arrive at the Star Cave. Not that there is any stars, but this cave has six exits arranged in sort of a star pattern. Start counting counterclockwise from where we are, the second exit (on your right) is the one with the twin fat Burricks, which are now staring at you. The third exit leads to a T-junction, one side going to Quintus, the other to the Big Cave (on your forward journey, you came from Big Cave to that T-junction and turned left to go to Quintus). The fourth exit goes directly to the Big Cave (go and have a look). Both the fifth and the sixth leads to the Initial Cave. The fifth has a Burrick, leading to the narrow opening from the Initial Cave. The sixth one opens to the Empty Cave, through which you return to Initial Cave without meeting any Burricks.

Therefore your escape route is like this. From Quintus, leave via the leftmost exit by running past the lone Burrick. Into the next small cave and immediately take the exit on your right. Into Star Cave, take the first exit on your left (what we called sixth exit above). It takes you back to the Initial Cave without passing a Burrick. Back at Initial Cave, locate the up-going tunn

el on your left and climb into it. Practise this. When you are done, enter Quintus.

Into the new wing. When playing Normal or Hard Difficulties, take from the top of the second pair sarcophagus, one on each side.

When you arrive at the vault, Garrett will murmur that he is not afraid of heights. Time for climbing.

From the ground, locate the ladder on your left leading to the first ring-ledge. Get off the ladder and move to the opposite side to find the next ladder going to the next ring-ledge. On the second ring-ledge, go counterclockwise from the second ladder and you find the third ladder (this one is not very visible and I often missed it) before you make half a circle. From the top of the third ladder, you need to jump to the third ring-ledge, which is not easy. Save your game before jumping because you will get badly hurt if you overshoot. May be it is better if you do not climb to the top of the ladder, so that you do a jump and mantle to the third ring-ledge without fear of overshooting.

Walk around the ring-ledge to find an opening into the centre. Jump at the ladder there and climb to the top. Off the ladder and Garrett will confirm that you have found the Horn. Get it.

For players at Normal Difficilty, this is the end of the mission. The others should save the game again, because getting down is just as dangerous. It is not possible to jump from the centre ladder back to the ring-ledges, so you need an alternate route down. Locate two more level of partial ledges above the third ring-ledge, so that you can drop from one to the next and back to the third ring-ledge. Descend the ladder. When jumping to the second ring-ledge, instead of jumping to the nearest section parallel to the wall (where you can possibly overshoot and fall), jump instead to the next section on the left or right, which is much safer. Descend to the lowest ring in a similar fashion then the the ground.

Reader misterhaan added a hint for easier jumping. From the ring nearest the top, turn around and look along one of the angled edges. Jump as far as you can. The gap is short enough that you can easily make it that far, and it gives you a longer landing surface.

An alternate way is a crazy jump. From the top, look South and locate the ladder on the outer wall that accesses the third ring-ledge. Take aim and run South. The height does not matter: you never get hurt by falling to a ladder or rope. From the ladder, proceed down as usual.

Leave Quintus and you know the way. Take the first left past the lone Burrick, then immediate on the right. From Star Cave, take the first left and continue till you find the tunnel on your left leaving the caves.

Go back to the 4 Pillar Hall. Cling on the left wall and move past the pillar emiting fireballs. Move down the ramp to Spiral Hall.

There are several places on the West we have not visited. Midway in the Spiral Hall, jump into the I Hall at 2C3 across the gap. On the other end, cross the central bridge of E Hall. Now you are in the middle of the arc-ledge: on your right it goes to the ladder on top of the Ramp (where the Zombie Possum is), turn left instead.

On the South end, proceed to O Hall, but all you see is just a circular ledge outside the vault. The three sarcophasus are empty for Expert and Hard Difficulties. Do not bother climbing the ladder in front of you unless you are at Normal Difficulty, in which case you need to climb to the top to get a . Go right and enter the first doorway into Hammer Graves.

See the hammer shaped light pattern on the floor? Be careful. It is not the light that is dangerous (it is just the light fused through the hammer shaped ceiling), but the floor itself. Look carefully and you find a hammer-shaped area with a different tiling, roughly the same area as the light, but a little smaller. Step on it and fire rains on you.

In the room are three extensions with a sarcophagus each. On top of the three sarcophagi, take a total of three . At the end of the room are two ladders going down. Climb down any one of them.

At the bottom is a Holy Water Font. Here you find one more Golden Limb on the floor, and the Golden Skull on the rim of the sarcophagus. Together with the three you have already gathered (from Cave Hall, Stairs Hall and Flooded Area), you have collected the complete skeleton of the Builder’s First Apprentice. Throw all the Gold Bones into the sarcophagus. In Original Thief, the bones will just disappear, but in Thief Gold you get a reassuring “ding” sound to denote that something is happening. When you are done, goodies will suddenly appear around you as a reward of your good deeds. Collect 8 Water Arrows, 4 Fire Arrows, and a vial of Holy Water. Leave the Hammer Graves the way you came.

If you are playing Hard or Expert Difficulty Levels, skip this paragraph and proceed with the . Playing Normal Difficulty, the Mystic’s Soul is not part of your mission objectives. As a result, the 5 Torches Room is not accessible to you. If you leave the Hammer Graves and turn right, you will only find a door you cannot open. Therefore, go back to E Hall. At the middle of the arc-ledge, cross the central bridge and enter I Hall. Although the mission does not require you to go back to the surface, you should still follow the Leaving section of the walkthrough, or else you will miss serveral pieces of treasure. Before you reach the open air, I will direct you back to get the Horn of Quintus. For now, skip the rest of this section (Mystic’s Soul) and continue with .

Starting from here, continue reading this and the next two sections ( and ) before you take any action. Those two sections introduce two alternatives to the one to be presented in this section.

From the Hammer Graves, turn right and continue counterclockwise around the O Hall to find a doorway. Inside the doorway is an outer hall, and on the oppsite site of the outer hall, an inner room. Although the inner room is noisy with Zombies, they cannot reach you (yet), so ignore them. While original Thief Dark Project players can proceed directly to inner room, Thief Gold players should enter the outer hall carefully.

A new enemy is introduced in Thief Gold, and he is guarding the inner room. Move quietly into the outer hall and into the left side-room. Proceed quietly and peek into the inner room. The Fire Shadow is a dark shadow with flames flying around his limbs. And his attacks are very deadly.

Prepare your Water Arrows to splash him. I have never been able to defeat him with a single Water Arrow, so shoot two. When hurt, he runs away like Superman (try stand in his way — he is fun to watch). You find a Fire Arrow at the place where you hit him.

Thief and Thief Gold players both continue at the inner room. Thief Gold players should act quickly here. The Fire Shadow is immortal. He will return soon. If you want to, you can wait for him to get more Fire Arrows (if you have that many Water Arrows). By the way, he does not really run away and run back. If you “watch” carefully, he disappears soon after he is out of your sight. And he reappears inside the outer room.

Odyseeos pointed out that instead of using Water Arrows on The Fire Shadow (which are in short supply), you can lead the Fire Shadow to the Fireball room. After a number of hits, he will drop a Fire Arrow and run away. So you grab the Fire Arrow and come back here to repeat the action indefinitely. Odyseeos succeeded in collecting 15 Fire Arrows this way!

Stand at the centre of the inner room. In front of you are some metal mechanism on the floor, but you cannot use it. Around you are five metal doors. Five Zombies are waiting behind them. Above the five doors are five torches. After saving your game, light up the five torches with five Fire Arrows.

There are two very unforgiving mistakes you can make in the Original Thief Dark Project (documented in the file thiefpat.txt installed with the v1.33 patch). Make them, and you cannot complete the mission. If you do not have a game saved before making the mistake, you would have to restart from the beginning. The first of the two mistakes is right here. If you did not have five Fire Arrows, you cannot proceed from here. Actually, you just got four from the Builder’s First Apprentice, and therefore this is not asking you much. In Thief Gold, they are even more lenient and you can get additional Fire Arrows from the Fire Shadow. By the way, the second unforgiving mistake is in Mission 9: The Lost City. We’ll talk about it when we get there.

Five doors open, and five Zombies crowd upon you. The metal mechanism on the floor opens, so drop quickly into the now opened hole (and do not mess with the metal mechanism on the floor). It is not easy to squeeze into the hole and that is why I told you to save your game first. BTW if you ever come back to clean up the Zombies, you will find that their five cubicles are empty, with only a switch to open the metal door in case you are trapped inside.

Odyseeos pointed out that instead of running away from the Zombies, you can lead them to the Fireball room to put them to rest. You can usually attract two or three Zombies to follow you there in one trip.

Reader Michele L. Worley taught me another way to handle the Fire Shadow (for Thief Gold) and the five Zombies. You will also get several Water Arrows using this method. Enter the outer hall as above, and hide at the shadows just outside the inner room. Look at the pillars of the inner room. The lower part is wood, while the ring on top of them is metal. Shoot a Rope Arrow at the top of the wooden pillar.

When the Fire Shadow is away in the outer hall, climb up the rope and mantle to the ring. Up on the ring, there is a skeleton (how did he get up here?) and two Water Arrows (three for Hard, four for Normal). Note these arrows are not available in Original Thief.

From the ring, save game and shoot Fire Arrows to light up the torches. The Fire Shadow may or may not see you, but he cannot do anything from below. Then you can kill all the Zombies. Unfortunately, the Zombies here do not like to crowd together (because you are not down there to attract them), so you probably need to kill them with Fire Arrows (you have plenty afterall). Or just leave the Zombies alone.

When you are ready, shoot two Water Arrows at the Fire Shadow (I suppose it is what those Water Arrows on the ring are for) to send him away. Crouch and drop down from the ring. Rush into the hole if the Zombies are still at wild. If you have burnt down all five Zombies, then you can even leisurely visit their cubicles before going down the hole.

Reader P666 told me an annovative way to try getting in. Unfortunately, the method doesn’t work. However, the approach deserves mentioning here.

In the middle of the outer hall, look up to find a hole at the ceiling, with a ladder above the hole. In fact, after you got the Mystic’s Soul, you climb down the ladder and drop back here. So why don’t we get inside via the ladder?

There is no climbable object nearby, and there is no soft surface to target your Rope Arrows. Actually, the only climbable object is very far away. In Thief Gold, I won’t even consider it as a possibility: with the Fire Shadow roaming around, you can never have the leisure to mantle on anything and jump at the ladder. In Original Thief, it is a sensible move. Go back to the top of the great ramp (leading down to level 1). Have you settled the Zombie Possum there? If no, wake him up and lead him to the entrance of the Fireball room. Otherwise, he will be blocking your path on your way back.

Go past the Fireball room to the Y-bridge (2B4, level 2 of Y Hall). Go straight forward (East, instead of turning right) and you arrive at the X Hall. Continue East up the ramp to level 3. Turn right to go a quarter of the full circle (the whole level is a circular ledge) and turn left to leave. Starting from here, it is the path (no forks until nearly the end) to leave the Bone Hoard, described in detailed in the . The journey is safe, because there aren’t very many AIs above level 1, most of which are still waiting for you from inside the cubicles of the inner room with Five Torches.

You will find two barrels before you arrive at the actual exit, Get the one next to the statue on your right (don’t fall off the ledges). Push it back to the Five Torches Room (P666 assured me that it is not at all easy, and will take a very long time to complete). When you get back to the X Hall (with the circular ledge), do not try to push the barrel down the steep ramp back to level 2 the way you came. It won’t work (save game and give it a try). Instead, push the barrel along the circular ledge clockwise to the West side. Save game and push the barrel out of the window. It will drop on the Y Bridge below.

Then you continue to push it to the Fireball Room. When you arrive at the Fireball Room doorway, save your game. When the barrel is hit by the fireballs, it bounces in strange ways. You need to time it well: you have about just enough time to push the barrel so that the fireball will hit it on the right (when viewed from inside the room). The explosion will then push it forward past the doorway. If you are unlucky, the explosion topples the barrel and it will lie on it side. In that case, keep pushing it back to the entrance and let it be hit a few more times. Once I got it thrown down the ramp, but it manage to stand on its top (not bottom!).

Past that, you can push the barrel all the way to the outer hall peacefully. Unfortunately, even if you successfully jumped on the well placed barrel (which is very difficult in itself), you still cannot grab the ladder from the top of the barrel. The ceiling looks within reach, but I have jumped enough times to give up.

Although this method doesn’t works, I decided to include this because the process itself is interesting. Remember: this game is about making good uses of what is available to tackle your problems.

Either way, down in the hole. Or did you? I am sure Garrett is getting fat and have quite some problems passing through narrow places. Moreover, if you are curious, you may not be able to resist playing with the metal mechanism on the floor. They are the floor plates coving the hole. If you “use” them, they will close. After they close, they won’t open again. The only way to open them a second time is to douse the torches and light them up again, if you have that many Fire Arrows.

Down the hole, dive to the other end. If you are playing Thief Gold at Normal or Hard Difficulties, collect two Water Arrows midway. Surface and mantle into a room full of traps.

Look around. There are emitter traps all around you. Fortunately the floor nearby is safe to stand on.

Move forward. At the pillars, stay on the left side of the left pillars (or right side of right pillars). Study the floor: in front of the stairs are two full rows of pressure plates. Further, it is nearly impossible to notice that three of the stair steps are also rigged. From the safety behind pillars, pick up something and throw it at the traps for fun.

Check the rafters above. Shoot Rope Arrow to the second and third rafters (the two closer to the stairs). Climb one and jump to the other. From the second rope, jump to the banister and walk to the top.

Alternatively, from the South side of the Southeast pillar, walk West on the pressure plates until you are in front of the East banister. Things will fire, but they would not hit you. Turn South and mantle on the banister. Walk on it to the top.

From the top of the banister ramp, jump to the top area. It is safe here: time for making another saved game. There aren’t any more pressure plates, but do not grab the Soul yet. Have you watched Raiders of the Lost Ark? As soon as you take the gem, the plate it is sitting on will raise, and all sorts of things will fire at you. There are two ways to get it. The dramatic one is to follow Dr. Jones. Pick up a skull and place it on the pressure plate along side with the gem. Take the gem, and all is well. The other way is to stand far away: from the banister, inch forward until you can lean and highlight the gem. Take it from there, and the fireballs cannot reach you. And you can enjoy the dynamics of the trap. Unlike the floor traps, this one fires only once.

Anyway, take the , save your game and descend the stairs the way you climbed it (or the way you didn’t). Or you can do a running jump to fly over all the traps (not easy). Go back towards the water. Do a running jump to the ladder behind it. Climb to the top.

You find an empty corridor, and at the end is another ladder going down. The Fire Shadow and the five Zombies are probably waiting for you. Climb down the ladder, turn around to face the ladder (face North), drop and run.

You should be facing the exit of the room. Leave and turn left. Run past the Hammer Graves and connect to the E Hall. The Zombies will not be able to follow you, but the Fire Shadow can, so keep running if you are playing Thief Gold. At the middle of the arc-ledge, cross the central bridge and enter I Hall at 2C3. You are safe now but just keep running to save time.

Run along the narrow corridor of 2C3 I Hall and at the East end, jump to the Spiral Hall. Turn right to descend the spiral and into the Y Hall at 2B4. You will be standing on the (right) side branch of the Y-ledge (with Marad in front of you). Turn right to go East to the X Hall at 2B5.

Climb the ramp going 2B5-W to 3B5-E. Turn right and run along the circular ledge to the next ramp. Ignore the doorway there and run up the next ramp to go North up to Level 4 Mantle up the Level 4 ledge, run forward to arrive at 3 Pillar Hall at 4A5.

Look down: there are many skeleton below. Shoot a Rope Arrow to the ceiling and climb down. When shooting and climbing, stay on the side, keeping away from where the Face faces.

In the original Thief Dark Project, the Face only fires at you when you grab the eyes. In Thief Gold, it fires as soon as you walk near the Face, so watch out. The fireballs will hit the pillars and the explosion blows the skulls on the floor towards the Face. A nice effect to watch. Anyway grab the two from the eyeball sockets of the Face. Behind the pillar opposite the Face is a Chest containing four Rope Arrows. In case you do not have any Rope Arrows and have fallen down here, you still can climb away. Climb back up, retrieve the Rope Arrow if you want to (we no longer need any). Leave the room.

Descend the ramp back to Level 3. Enter the doorway in front of you. The corridor will continue South for several metres (rising back to Level 4), and then turn right to go West in the dark (4D4). Then across the plank to the next vault (4C4) which is above the Spiral Hall and the Cave Hall. Cross the walkway into next vault (4C3) which is above the Door Room, where you make a left turn and go South in the dark.

Emerge from darkness and enter the doorway on your right (or you can walk past the torch and around the vault, arriving at the same point on the other side of the vault). Via the other side, you meet a wood barrel — if you run past the barrel, you will drop into the pool beyond (it is the Ladder-Bridge Hall)! If playing Normal Difficulty, turn right to find a statue wearing a on his head.

Turn left and find a small opening on the left side of the wall opposite a Torch. This is probably the entrance used by the Felix team. Players at Hard or Expert Difficulties crawl into it and get back to the outside, completing the mission. For players at Normal Difficulty, you do not need to leave the Bonehoard (you can go out for a look and come back). Instead, you should now proceed to get the Horn of Quintus by finding your way back. Go to the ladder at the top of the big ramp, 2B2 Ramp Hall Level 2. Jump back to the previous section to get the Horn.