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.

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.

In the last mission, you do not have any loots to collect. Nor are there any picks (that counts toward the pick count in the mission statistic) for you.

In this mission, different difficulty levels have access to very different amount of powerups. This walkthrough has included the powerups for all three difficulty levels.

With the Builder’s Chisel, the High Priest wiped out all the beasts in the Trickster Temple. You made up a story for the Hammerites, where you were neither a Keeper initiate nor a Vine agent. They recognize your skills and offer you a good job. Constantine has built a gateway from the Maw of Chaos, through which his beasts can enter our world. The Maw has another gateway to the evil world of the Trickster, but the beasts are passing through it very slowly. To speed this up, Constantine is busily preparing a ritual to open up the gateway (for broadband access). When he is completed, all the beasts of his world can invade us without any obstacles.

Your job is to sneak into the Maw of Chaos to destroy the gate. You also need to find the altar where Constantine will be using the Eye in his ritual. Once there, you will swap the Eye with a Fake Eye that the Hammerites have made to stop his further attempts at openning up a gateway.

You will run into all your friends plus the Cray Beast, but there is nothing for sell (even though you have 100 loot in the previous mission). Perhaps there are no shops in the Maw. You should be grateful that, unlike the Terminator, you did not arrive naked.

While your mission objectives The more beasts come through that portal, the more
  get through to the Hammer temple and the city.
The Hammers tell you that if you don’t destroy the portal
  before Constantine finishes his ritual, it may remain open forever
  even if the Trickster’s plan fails. seem to imply that you need to move quickly, you don’t. The Trickster will wait for you, and don’t bother about the hord of Beasts passing to our world. Move slowly like what a thief should.

When the game starts, you are facing South, with a red tunnel right in front of you. Hide immediately to the right side of its entrance, because Beasts are marching towards you soon. At the shadow next to the red tunnel entrance, turn around to see a portal on your North. It is the one you just came through. It leads to our World. It is not the one you are after. Beasts will walk towards you and into this portal. On the other side, the Hammerites will be busily fighting them. All you need to do is to let them pass and make sure they let you pass. By the way, you do not need to return to this portal. Similar to the previous mission, you just go forward to the end.

I tried hard to climb the red structure to no avail. While waiting, read the Papyrus Garrett:
All we can offer you in aid are these crystals and this passage from
one of our oldest books:

“The Trickster’s works, such as they are, are made of the unformed
stuff of the world, not the proper materials the Builder hath taught.
Fire and water, earth and air — these are for the Trickster as brick
and beam are to us. But, like their master, they are flawed.
His Maw is anchored by raw elements, and therein lies its weakness.
Destroy each of its anchors with its opposite, and the Maw must
then follow in their wake.” in your inventory, which is a letter the Hammerites gave Experts. This hint is only available at Expert Difficulty because Normal and Hard do not need to destroy the Maw Portal. To destroy the Maw Portal (again, the other one, not this one), you need at least one elemental arrow of each kind: Moss Arrow, Water Arrow, Fire Arrow, and Gas Arrow. You already have one of each from the Hammerites, and there are plenty to pick in your journey ahead. You will be using Water Arrows on several Fire Elements (there are only three of them), and Gas Arrows on difficult AIs. There is hardly any chance to use the Fire Arrows you are going to pick up on your way (actually there are not a lot of situations in the whole game where you make good use of Fire Arrows). Remember to save one for the portal. And keep your Moss Arrows for the finale.

If you were playing Normal or Hard, then you have a different Papyrus Garrett: Dost this help thee aught?

“’Ware thee the rock of crystal, the song of doom. The
heart of mortal man is weak ’gainst its siren call, and temptation
beckons. As nearer thou drawest, the rock waits, until thy heart is
close for its strike, and thy fate is sealed.”

’Tis a fragment found in an old record warning of the Maw. in your inventory instead, telling you that it is harmful to touch the rocks of crystal. I will warn you when you come close to one.

The first thing you must know is: the Maw has an infinite supply of beasts sent from the other world. Every half minute or so, a pack of two to four Beasts will arrive at the Stairway. I think the packing is not actually intentional. The Beasts pack together because Insect Beasts walks very slowly (leaving a lot of space in front of her), and Cray Beast rather fast (leaving space behind). So each group always seem to start with an Insect Beast and ends with a Cray Beast. There is no point to kill any of these moving beasts. In contrast, a small number of stationary Beasts take guard at strategic locations, and you may bring them down as you see fit.

The initial sequence of Beasts seems to be fixed: Insect Beast, Ape Beast, Insect Beast, Cray Beast, Ape Beast, Insect Beast. Wait for the Insect Beast and the Ape Beast to walk past you, it is time to start moving (since the next Insect Beast will take quite some time to arrive).

Move to the end of the short red tunnel. If you so wish, you can hide on the shadows on either side of the exit to have a look around. The passage continues forward in a winding yellowish Stairway going down a long way. Since the Beasts are marching up along the yellowish Stairway, it is not where you should be heading. Get into the Purple Tunnel on the right.

From the exit of the last Purple Tunnel, peek to see what is outside. The base of the yellow Stairway is on your left. It connects to a horizontal grey stone passage going South. The Beasts now pass more on an individual basis, but you will be meeting them head on. On rare occasions, I have even met Beasts standing still, blocking the way. It is better to wait till an Ape Beast passes (and be away far enough) before moving — he walks fast, and leaves more room behind him. On the other hand, Insect Beasts walk slowly, and the next Beast is not that far behind.

Save your game and move forward along the South going passage, following the shadows. After two slight bends, you enters a hexagonal tunnel. Near the end of the hexagonal tunnel is a square opening on the right. Ignore it and run forward to the end of the hexagonal tunnel — it has half a meter of shadow for you to hide.

Turn around and wait till the next Ape Beast has left. Run into the square opening (now on your left, since you have turned around) into a square tunnel. On the other side of the tunnel is a semicircular ledge with lava on the left. Move quickly along the ledge. At the end of the ledge are steps going down. Locate the tiny patch of shadow on your right just before descending the stairs. Hide there because Beasts are arriving from in front of you very soon.

Enter the left tunnel, where Beasts come from. At the end, turn left and crouch at the shadow on your left (near the junction between the stone bridge ahead and the cave tunnel behind you). You can see the stone bridge ahead, and also the pillar and the Hexagonal Platform that you saw earlier. Look towards the left side of the stone bridge. There is a ledge (Ledge#1) on the rock wall, a meter or so lower than the stone bridge. It is where we are heading to.

When it is clear, run on the stone bridge and drop on to Ledge#1. Turn around to face the Hexagonal Platform. Beasts land on the left side of the pillar and then cross the stone bridge in front of you. You may also notice some Beasts are standing idly behind the pillar.

Crawl to the East end of your ledge to drop to a lower ledge (Ledge#2). Now you are safe from the marching Beasts. From now on, you no longer share their path. You will still see flying bubbles from time to time but they are not threats to you. From here, you can see another ledge (Ledge#3) to your Southwest, slightly lower than yours. It is attached to the pillar instead of to the wall. Move there and look towards the Southwest. You can see the rectangular opening that you visited in the previous excursion. There is not much else to see from there and Ledge#3 leads to no where else. Return to Ledge#2, face the lavafall and move to the North end along the cave wall.

It may seem to be a dead end. Move carefully forward to the very North end and lean forward to look down. There is another ledge below you on the left (Ledge#4). Drop on to it and follow the ledge into a tunnel.

The tunnel goes West and then South to an open area (no area is truely open, because we are underground, but the ceiling is high and you are no longer inside a tunnel). Follow the ledge along the wall. Just before you enter a tunnel, turn around to enjoy the view. You can see the Beast-in-Bubbles close-up, arriving from a tunnel at your North, beneath the tunnel you arrived from. They rise up, floats towards the lavafall, and then up to the Hexagonal Platform. You probably would not recognise the platform when viewed from below. Follow the movement of the bubbles and see when the Beasts land.

Turn around to enter the next tunnel. You can already see the big blue crystals ahead.

The music starts and it is time to dance — well, I mean save. Avoid the big blue crystals: they are not your Water Crystals, and it hurts to touch them. They are the Rocks of Crystal, and what you are hearing is the Song of Doom, which the Hammerites have hinted those at Normal and Hard . Check the mission map and you find that you arrived at the second part, the one with crystals.

On the frozen pool, skate carefully to collect five Water Crystals from next to the Rocks of Crystal. Viewing from the rock towards the ice, there are two groups of Rocks of Crystal along the left wall. Get a Water Crystal in front of the first group, and another Water Crystal behind the second group. Also on the left hand side is a third group of Rocks of Crystal away from the wall. The Water Crystal right in front of it gives you two Water Arrows. Still viewing from the rock towards the ice, there is only one group of Rocks of Crystal along the right hand wall. There is a Water Crystal on each side of the group. The one in front of the group gives you two Water Arrows while the one behind only gives one.

To move slowly on ice, stay crouched, and always get ready to brake with the back key. When possible, stick to a rocky wall. Move 45 degrees into the wall so that part of your momentum is pressed against the wall and only part of it is used for forward motion.

After you have got all the Water Crystals, save again and head to the exit at the Northwest corner.

To the North is a small icy slope, but listen before you descend. Three Frog Beasts are waiting for you (two at Hard, one at Normal). It is difficult enough to stand still on the slope; trying to aim at the jumping Beasts is maddening.

Stabilise yourself on the right side of the slope against the rock wall. Locate all the Frog Beasts that you have. Also look North at the group of Rock of Crystal at the end of the small icy slope. You can see a Water Crystal next to it: we’ll collect it after getting rid of the Frog Beasts.

Study how the Frog Beasts jump. At one location, the Frog Beasts stay a little longer. If you cannot catch that spot, then the only solution is to drop down yourself. When they see you, they will hesitate long enough for you to shoot. The key is trying to let them see you one by one, or you would not be able to shoot fast enough. You may even also consider sending them Gas Arrows, so that you can just shoot at its vicinity.

Sometimes, you find one or two Frog Beasts sitting still at the far edge of the area. In that case, you can shoot at it when the other Frog Beast(s) jumps nearby, to take more out in a single explosion.

After you have tamed the Frog Beasts, go back to the Rocks of Crystal at the bottom of the small icy slope. Go to the wall corner and carefully lean to grab the Water Crystal behind the Rocks of Crystal, which gives you two Water Arrows. Then slowly move down the rocky slope ahead (towards the North). After you have passed two blocks of Rocks of Crystals, you are approaching the end of the rocky slope. Or maybe the end of your life.

This is so interesting that you wonder why it has not yet appeared in the earlier missions. A long slope of ice, with Rocks of Crystals here and there. Before you start, align yourself with the Rocks of Crystal at the center line and save game. Crouch and keeping pressing the back key to slow yourself down. Use the strafe keys to evade the center Rocks of Crystal when you get close, just like you were on a slalom ski race. When you reach the rocky bottom, keep pressing the back key till you really stopped, or you would bump into the row of Rocks of Crystals at the finish line.

Turn right and move carefully among the shadows to the next area. There are three Fire Elements at Expert, two at Hard, and one at Normal. Most of the time, you would find a Fire Element at the far East wall, and two more standing side by side on your Southeast. However I have seen cases where the two on the Southeast are widely separated from each other. In Thief Gold, they like to wander around, but if you wait for a minute or two, they usually settle down at these locations as well.

If you have got a standing twin, using a Water Arrow at the wall between them should douse both of them at the same time (if you douse one of them first, you would alarm the other). The third one should be ignorant of the murder, so you can move closer to give him another Water Arrow. However, if they are not sitting ducks, then you need to do some good shooting to bring them down. In that case, stay at your shadows and they will have a hard time locating you (unfortunately, they will shine light upon you when they get close).

When they are done, move East on the bridge cross the lava river. While on the bridge, look left to locate a small ledge with several Fire Crystals. On the other side of the lava river, turn left and walk along the East bank. Crouch and lean towards the lava river to collect three Fire Crystals (five/six when playing Hard/Normal Difficulties) resting on the small ledge.

Go to the East corner of the area to look beyond. You can see a small lava lake below, with several Fire Crystals on the shore. If you want to, you can skip a small part of the journey by jumping forward to the edge of the lake. Otherwise, go back and leave the area via a small tunnel on the South (near the Rocks of Crystal). The exit is dark, so you really need to get close before you can locate it.

Move slowly down the slope (don’t overshoot!). You will arrive at a cave where the walls has an alien look. You can also see bubbles flying below. Go left and at the Rock of Crystal turn right (you have no other choice anyway) and proceed to the top of the slope. At the top, look left. You can see Rocks of Crystal and the lava pool (hidden behind the rocky wall) that we saw a little earlier. Go to the lake and lean forward to collect five Fire Crystals. Go back to the top of the slope and proceed forward. It first goes East, and then South to an abrupt end. It is dark here, so move carefully and do not overstep!

Inch forward and lean to have a look. A steep rocky slope.

Save game and give it a try. As if it isn’t exciting enough, the bottom of the rocky slope is connected to an icy slope! When you are dead, restore.

Step forward to start sliding down. As before, keep pressing the back key, and strafe to the right with all your might. If you still cannot reach the right wall, try this: from the path before the slope, run towards the right when jumping off the edge. You will hit the right hand wall in mid air, drop softly to the slope, and slow down rapidly.

The point of reaching the right wall is not only to slow you down. There is a small ledge on the right at the bottom of the rocky slope. If you keep yourself to the right wall, you will be able to stop there instead of being sent down the icy slope at a high initial velocity.

After you have stopped down, look around you. A stone bridge extends from your position over the icy slope towards the left wall. Follow this bridge and go East. Near the end of the bridge, you will find a Fire Crystal resting on the bridge.

Go back towards the right wall. At the West end, look carefully and you will find yourself at a T-junction. Instead of turning right to go back, turn left to explore further downhill. The stone bridge will again cross the icy slope towards the opposite wall. This time, you will find several plants near the end, and under them four precious Healing Fruits.

From the stone bridge, look down to study the icy slope. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any way to drop down from the stone bridge without getting hurt. Therefore retrace back to the start of the first stone bridge (ie where the rocky slope ends).

From the bottom of the rocky slope, save and slide down the icy slope. Remember to crouch and press back key. It is best to stay at about the center line of the slope. Strafe left and right to evade the Rocks of Crystal as necessary.

At the bottom of the icy slope is a small rocky plane. You can already see a big blue Well ahead.

On your right is a small elevated area, but there is nothing there. The big Well is the exit of this area. The rim of the Well is made of Rock of Crystal, so you cannot climb it. The only way to get inside the Well is to drop down from the inverted pool of water above it. We will ride the waterrise to access the inverted pool.

Save game and jump into the waterrise. It pulls you up to a river flowing first West and then South. Reorient yourself and get ready to dive. At the next left turn, you have to go underwater. Swim forward (East) until the end, where the water column brings you up to the next level. Turn right (South) and get ready.

After the rise, water will continue to carry you East. Mantle on your right (where you should already be facing) to a small empty cave where you can catch your breath (yours and Garrett’s) and save game. Look up: you can see another stream of water right above the one in front of you. Another upflow will bring you there. The stream above is upside-down: the river bed is on top and the water/air interface is at the bottom. Therefore you cannot breath (if you stick your head below the water/air interface, you would fall out of the river).

Turn your back to the water. Look up and you can make out a ledge near the top of the cave. There is your second resting place. When the river brings you there, you will need to run onto that ledge, hopefully not overshooting and falling down here.

Drop back into water and continue East. At the East end, dive and swim forward with the water to increase your speed (and shorten the time underwater). Remember to stay away from the walls when you need speed. The water column will carry you up another level and go back towards the West. You are now in the upside-down stream you have seen earlier. There isn’t air above; and the air below is not accessible to you. Keep moving forward at top speed. At the end, it will make an 180° turn in the left direction and you will nearly be out of breath. Just after the turn, there is a vertical pool (actually an air/water surface) on your left. Swim into it. Beyond the vertical surface is air, and a very small ledge you can stand on. If you overshoot, you would fall to the cave below and you would have to repeat the swim again.

After you have regained your breath, look down. It is the cave you mantled into a little earlier. Save game and run back to water.

Dive East along the current and you finally arrive at a big pool with a hole on the bottom. Dive towards the bottom and locate the Well beneath you. This is the most difficult part: dive through the water surface and drop into the Well. It is difficult because you are running out of breath here. Since you have a forward momentum, it is difficult to aim at the Well, like dropping photon torpedoes from an X-Wing Fighter. Consider settling with losing some health when you become tired of diving. You have just received several Healing Fruits after all.

You will probably descend to nearly the bottom of the Well. Resurface to gasp for air. If you resurface on the wrong side, you will find yourself still inside the Well. In that case, dive to the bottom and the current will carry you into an opening leading North. Resurface on that side.

Save game. A tunnel goes North. After a left turn, you will arrive at the Tree Land.

Garrett will remark “Now that’s BIG!”. Save and move along the rim of the big cave towards your right (counterclockwise around the Tree). Look up towards the Northwest direction: you can see two bright blue pillars high up. That is Blue Gate, the exit of Tree Land.

Three Ape Beasts are patroling this cave (two at Normal or Hard). It takes quite some time for them to walk to your side. The area is big and dark, so you should have little problem in finding each of them being alone. Stay on the East half of the cave while greeting the Ape Beasts. When all of them are down, go to the West side of the Tree to locate its entrance. Three Spiders are wandering inside the tree trunk. Save game, stay outside and ambush them with Broadhead Arrows. Shoot first at Spiders which has wandered to the outlying areas — if you shoot one near the center, the others will soon discover its body.

Use any many Broadhead Arrows as you need, since you do not need them any more (ok, there are three more Ape Beasts and you can choose not to use the Blackjack). After the Spiders have turned over, move into the Tree. A Healing Fruit is sitting between the first two Glowing Mushrooms on the left, another Healing Fruit is lying next to a Glowing Mushroom on the right. Go South to a veritcal strip of sparkling lights (the lights are only visible when you raise your head to look upwards, not if you are looking straight ahead or downwards). This is the Particle Pole that you can climb like a ladder. Gather one more Healing Fruit near its base and save game.

You could climb the Particle Pole to the top, but for Experts, a Spider Beast would attack you midway. Instead, turn around and move a few steps to climb up a ledge on your right (East). Find two Moss Crystals near the North end, and mantle up the next ledge on the South. From here, look West. Across the Particle Pole is another ledge a little higher than yours, from where you will be able to mantle onto a ledge to your Northwest, on which a Spider Beast is waiting. You can see (part of the) Spider Beast (Experts only), but you probably cannot shoot it from here.

You can do a running jump to the ledge on the other side of the Particle Pole. You need to jump early, because your ledge slopes downwards. It is easier to get there by using a Rope Arrow. Or simply climb the Particle Pole until you can mantle onto that ledge. In any case, crouch and confirm that the Spider Beast hasn’t noticed your arrival. Shoot it down with a Broadhead Arrow.

Collect two Moss Crystals and mantle up to the ledge where the Spider Beast was. Find a Moss Crystal behind its body. Climb to the circular ledge above using a Rope Arrow. Walk along the circular ledge going clockwise. At about the Northmost point of the circle, pick up a Moss Crystal. Run all the way to the South end next to the Particle Pole. Pick up the last Moss Crystal and turn around. From there, you can see the Blue Gate and the slope leading to it.

Run back to the other end of the circular arc. Mantle up to the slope and run upwards to leave the interior of the Tree.

When you return to outside the Tree, you can see a tree branch leading to the Blue Gate. Crouch and crawl slowly up the branch. For Normal and Hard, skip to the next paragraph. For Experts, a Spider Beast is waiting at the Blue Gate. Even though I know it is directly ahead, I often cannot see it until it spins around. Shoot it with a Gas Arrow, or else you would wake up all the Spiders in the cave ahead.

Save game. Walk carefully past the Blue Gate and try to study the cave ahead. It is a horrifying cave, with two more Spider Beasts and five Huge Spiders inside. Also count your Gas Arrows. At a minimum, experts need one for the Maw Portal, and it is more confortable if you also gas the Insect Beast guarding it. Other than that, you have only two or three Ape Beasts ahead, all of which can be handled by the Blackjack. You can use the remaining Gas Arrows here.

Refer to this screenshot. The big cave has one single exit on the far right. The red circle is a favorite spot for Spider Beasts and Huge Spiders. Shoot an Gas Arrow at the cluster of Spiders marked by the red circle, or else you will need to step on them (which is scary but not a real problem). There is little point to shoot at the Huge Spider marked by the yellow circle, because that platform is spacious and you can easily avoid the Spider. The bottom line is: if you shoot down the Spiders in your way, you can walk peacefully; even if you don’t, you still can run to the exit, usually without taking any damages.

Move along the path marked in green: climb the slope on your right to an intermediate platform, turn left and ascend the slope on the North, finally turn right to leave via the rectangular tunnel opening on your right (East).

When crossing the interesting Particle Bridge, have a look at the bubbles travelling underneath. Enter the next long hall lined with purple lights.

You find that you are on a big long piece of rock, sort of a bridge structure. You can see the lava lake below the rock bridge. Beast-bubbles arrive from the Southeast, flies beneath the rock bridge and leave at the Northwest. You need to go East along the rock bridge without stepping on the light regions. If you step on them, the cave walls will shoot fireballs at you.

There are many ways to pass this hall. The quick way is to run forward at top speed and knock the Ape Beast guarding the exit before he could respond. The walls will shoot at you but they will miss. In Thief Gold, it is even easier, because there isn’t an Ape Beast on the other side. Yet it is not very prudent to do so. Outside the exit is a ledge where two Ape Beasts patrol. They may be far away, but they would hear you if they are close by.

The second method solves half the extra problem in Original Thief. You deliberately draw the attention of the Ape Beast at the exit, so that he will walk towards you and get himself killed by the trap. After he is dead, you still need one of the other methods to cross the hall. This is nice, but sometimes the trap doesn’t stop. It keeps firing, and as a result I have trapped myself.

The prudent way is to sneak along the shadows, going left and right to follow the strips of shadow. At one point, the shadow is disconnected, but you can run past that point without triggering the trap. If playing Original Thief, you also need to creep towards the Ape Beast to knock him down.

Notice that the rock bridge is higher in the middle, but lower on the left and right. As a fourth alternative, stick to either side of the rock and crawl forward. You’ll triger the traps, but they will fly above your head.

Hide in the shadow outside the exit. In front of you is a lava lake (down below) with a circular ledge around it. Two Ape Beasts are patroling this ledge (plus somewhere a little ahead). When they are away, move forward to the shadows at corner points of the ledge and wait for them.

When the first one walks past you, check whether the other one can see you. Knock, and ditch the body into the lava lake (inch forward and throw forward). Wait for the other Beast. You can move around the ledge to choose another point for ambush, but do not go up the slope. The ledge will become a narrow tunnel where you will run into the Ape Beast head on. When both are done, leave via the East end of the ledge into a short tunnel going uphill.

Emerge from the tunnel to a ledge overlooking the second lava lake, at a higher altitude than the one before. Move left and see a lava river flowing down a slope towards the previous lake. Jump across the gap and run along the circular ledge to the Southeast exit.

It takes you to yet another spiraling ledge around the thrid lava lake. Continue running and leave on the East side, going South. Just before you leave the third lake, turn aroud and look. Locate the part of the spiraling ledge where you arrived from. Look underneath the spiraling ledge and you can find a small flat area. I haven’t found a way to descend there, and it doesn’t lead to anywhere. So we can only ignore it and continue with our journey.

Follow the tunnel to run down the slope until you reach a T-junction. The left branch goes up (East) and is a blind alley. Therefore turn right to go West. Keep descending and you will arrive at the final lava lake.

If playing at Normal or Hard, you do not need to destroy the portal. If you have Gas Arrows left, shoot down the Insect Beast guarding the portal before she can attack you. Run past the area and save game when you arrive at a boulder with three vines are dangling in front of it. Skip to .

The rest of this section is for Experts. Hide in the shadows. Locate the red Maw Portal across the lava lake. Let’s just disable that portal and give the Hammers a fighting chance (Voice over available to Experts only). Bubbles come through it and start moving East. You cannot jump to the ledge containing the Maw Portal, but you don’t need to anyway.

Move forward to the region facing the portal. Locate the four elements at the four corners, neatly arranged so that you can shoot them easily:

• Lower Right: Brown ball with green glow is Earth
• Lower Left: Blue ball with blue glow is Water
• Upper Right: Yellow ball with orange glow is Fire
• Upper Left: White ball is Air

Save game. First, shoot a Gas Arrow at the brown ball of Earth. Remember Gas Arrows travel in straight lines, so aim with the top of the aiming rectangle.

Then, shoot a Water Arrow at the orange ball of Fire. Water Arrows have parabolic trajectories, and for that distance you have to shoot real high. Sort of place the yellow ball below the whole aiming rectangle. Since you have no more use for Water Arrows, never mind losing some. Keep shooting until you make it.

Save game and send a Moss Arrow at the white ball of Air. Moss Arrows curve downwards even more so than Water Arrows. And you still need a handful of Moss Arrows at the Altar. Reload game if you have sent too many Moss Arrows to nowhere. Notice that when the Moss Arrow hits the target, it turns back to Moss Crystal and falls to the ground.

When all is well, save game. If you have not gassed the Insect Beast, move forward to get closer to the exit of the area. Shoot a Fire Arrow at the blue ball of Water. Needless to say, Fire Arrows travels in a straight line. When it makes the hit, the red portal turns dark and no more Beasts could arrive.

If the two Beasts guarding the Maw Portal were still standing there, they would be alarmed by your Fire Arrow. The Insect Beast will start to send you explosive Fly Swarms. Therefore, turn and run.

Leave via the exit on the South. Follow the tunnel to turn left. After two more turns, you will arrive at a big boulder. Three vines are dangling in front of the boulder. Save game for the finale.

When you climb the vine to the top, the Trickster will start the ritual. If for any reason you climb back down, the Trickster will stop and wait for you. This is true all the way till the end of the mission.

On top of the boulder, find vines on the other side to climb down. Move forward quietly and stay in shadows.

The most important thing you must learn is, there is no way you can harm the Trickster. On the other hand, all the Healing Fruits you have is not quite sufficient to save you from his attacks. Excursion: save game and let him see you. He has a large variety of attacks. Even if you run away (opposite you is an area you can climb up and hide), he has a spell that harms you no matter where you are (makes everything untouchable).

In front of you is a Seven Point Star altar. The Eye is in the center. On the outer points of the star (the seven convex corners) are seven pedestals. Remember what they are? The Trickster Book says they mark the Compass Borning, the Compass Leaf, the Stormsie Compass, the Flamesie Compass, the Compass Tidestream, the Compass Stone, the Compass Darkness. On the inner points of the star (the seven concave corners) are seven gems you can ignore. The Trickster is busily casting spells at the seven pedestals. When you arrive, he is probably working on the second (you can see the magical effects above the pedestals on which he has completed his spells.

Excursion: sit still and see what happens after the Trickster completes his ritual.

Plan your path to the Eye (a straight line from you location). Cover your path with Moss Arrows, or use Rope Arrows at the ceiling. You have eight Moss Arrows and you should have spent only one at the Maw Portal, so you should have plenty left. Save your game. Now you need to swap the Eye with the Fake Eye.

When the Trickster is walking away from you, run to the Eye to swap it. All you need to do is to walk up to the Eye and press right mouse button (as if you want to pick it up). You do not have to “ready” the Faked Eye yourself. The eyes will be swapped and you hear the tune for an new mission objective It looks like things aren’t going to go wrong until
the end of the ritual. You’ll have to wait. . Don’t worry, just run back to your hiding place. The Trickster needs about twenty seconds for each spell, and a dozen more for walking from point to point. So move quickly but quietly (when not on moss). If he ever hears you, you are doomed.

Stay hidden and watch the show until you are bored to death, and then continue to sit there till the end. The finale is disappointing.

Reader Wes taught me a better way to swap the Eye. I think his way is what the designers had in mind.

From where you are, you can see two rocky areas on the other side of the altar. They are nearly identical, so choose the one that Trickster is not blocking your way. Creep along the side to get there. Do not walk on the red area, because that is noisy (unless you have covered it with moss). Inside each rocky area, the left side has nothing, but the right side has a ledge you can climb on. This leads to yet another small ledge that you can mantle up onto. This second ledge overlooks the ritual pit.

Shoot a Rope Arrow at the center of the roof so that it hangs above the Eye. Do a running jump to grab the rope. When the Trickster is not watching, lower yourself to swap the Eye. Climb back up and stay on the rope to watch the show beneath you.

The ending video is not bad. Actually the quality is higher than all the other missions, and fits the story quite well. Yet the anticlimax hardly matches this otherwise superb game. And you would learn more about Keepers in case you haven’t yet.

Somehow you get back to our world. The Hammerites give you a well earned gift. You think that you have just saved the world, but to the Keepers, you only have completed what was written in the books.

You decide to follow the path you have chosen, and not to pay attention to the Keeper’s warnings: that the balance has been disturbed, that the Metal Age is coming…

And yes, you should proceed with Thief II — The Metal Age!