This is just a first version I did because some people have shown interest in running this game. This is aimed at anyone who's familiar with the game but not the glitches, and wants to run the game. I try to explain the glitches somewhat thoroughly so you can expand your understanding of TOMP.

SPEED TRICKS

• Flare cancel

This one is very simple. You just throw a flare as you're about to land after a long fall, and you will avoid the long stumble animation. Please note the stumble animation is not canceled until you try to move. Therefore you should hold down directional keys or other keys upon landing, depending on what the next move is.

• Extended sprint

On specific frames it is possible to let go of the sprint key without interrupting the sprint animation. The energy gauge will stop depleting for the duration of that time. In real-time runs it is only really useful at the start of a sprint, where there is almost a second of continuous frames during which holding the sprint key is not needed. Please note that you cannot steer Lara L/R whenever the sprint key is not held!

• Pivot with guns

Lara has two pivot animations: One involving acceleration, and a full-speed anim that is used afterwards. If Lara has guns drawn when you begin to pivot, the first animation is skipped. The guns must be fully drawn, which means that you should use the pistols for this instead of a slower weapon. It also means that this does not work immediately after throwing a lever, collecting an item, climbing a ladder, etc.

• Double grab

Whenever you are to grab a ledge during forward motion, then vault up or shimmy, you can let go of the ledge immediately upon grabbing it and grab it a second time to skip an animation. It saves up to 5 frames depending on how good your timing is. It can also be used to interrupt Lara's shimmy animation and vault up earlier.

• Fast crawlspace exit

Have a flare drawn as you enter the crawlspace. Head for the crawlspace exit facing the cardinal point as precisely as you can. Angle yourself a few degrees to the right just as you're about to reach the edge to be safe. Turn 45 degrees to the right (One full anim.). Press and hold draw+action until Lara has dropped the flare and started picking it up again. Note that this does not work at certain crawlspace exits, assumably due to geometry or room portals interfering with pick-up detection.

WALL BUGS

• Corner bug

The "first glitch" of classic Tomb Raider. Place yourself close to a convex corner at ±45 degrees (distance and angle depending on the game, corner and move used to enter). Then jump, crawl, roll or dive into it. If there is open space up top, Lara will be placed there. If not, she is stuck in the wall and the trigger bug is available. In TR4/5, the crawl type is the most convenient. The corner bugs used in this run should be self-explanatory, apart from the dive bug in Angkor Wat, which is explained in the level specific bugs section.

• Flare-wall bug

You can use this bug to embed into practically any wall at any time -- as long as flares are available. First, have a flare drawn. Approach a wall facing ~10 degrees left of the cardinal point and drop the flare. Roll while putting away your guns, duck and press action to pick up the flare. Lara should be placed inside the wall. If there is open space on top, she will appear there. If not, she is stuck in the wall and the trigger bug is available.

TRIGGER BUG

Someone should probably make a separate document with a more detailed write-up fitting of this fantastically elaborate glitch that keeps on giving...

This is quite simply the most game-breaking glitch known in TR4/5. While we are able to make it do what we want and systematically look for opportunities to use it, its reasons are not perfectly understood -- but at least it is no longer gravely misinterpreted as it was for many years.

What you see in the run: Lara is put in a wall using the flare-wall bug and after a while the level magically ends.

More or less wild theory follows: Triggers that are seemingly designated for Lara are not actually designated for her, but instead for the "first active object" in whatever hypothetical list, in which Lara is the first by default. However, if she is stuck in an illegal spot (inside a wall), she is placed last in this list or perhaps removed entirely. The designation is then passed on to whichever "active" object you triggered first during the level. Valid candidates include most enemies, boulders, vehicles, certain animating objects, certain nullmesh objects, flares, projectiles, explosives, shell casings, even underwater bubbles... and finally the camera! It is the camera, coupled with another bug, that has the largest potential:

If you are indeed stuck at an illegal spot, the camera stops responding to Lara's location correctly. If you then draw and put away the binoculars (or the lasersight), the camera will shoot off about 20 squares into the direction you pointed at -- and start setting off triggers in that area, rendered or not! That, provided there were no active objects in the level. It would seem the camera has the least priority, which is why you have to take the time to kill off enemies or work around certain triggers in some cases.

For some reason, which I still fail to explain, the camera's trigger point is not limited to the square above which the camera is floating. It is instead an area around that point, with a radius of about 5 squares. Triggers within that radius are set off at different times, seemingly at random, with triggers further from the centre of the area being less likely to go off, and therefore requiring a longer wait on average. This binocular variation is often called "ALT" ("Advanced Look Trigger") for unknown reasons.

Each trigger bug used in the run is explained in the level specific bugs section.

MEDIPACK UNDERFLOW BUG

To perform this bug, you must have only one of a medipack type left in your inventory, and Lara must not be at full health. Simply open the inventory, highlight the med you want, press the hotkey for it, then action. (The hotkey press can be earlier, anytime while the inventory is open.)

In a run, you should waste your 3 small medipacks as you play Angkor Wat, then proceed to perform the underflow bug. (Your meds are carried over after the Cambodia levels.) Note that when you use the third and final SM using a hotkey, it doesn't actually heal you due to a bug. After you've wasted all three SM, you can open the inventory with the LM highlighted by default instead of the SM. Just press 9 and action. This is the most optimal way to peform the underflow glitch in a run. If you wait past Cambodia to ever open your inventory, you will highlight the pistols by default instead.

Another function of wasting your 3 SM is that the inventory will be shorter when scrolling for items.

It is of interest, that without the normally very annoying no-heal bug, the underflow bug would only be possible using SM. That is indeed the case for certain custom levels, where the no-heal bug has been fixed.

BAD BUGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

• No-heal bug

This happens if you press the 0 key with only 1 SM remaining, or press the 9 key with only 1 LM remaining. The medipack disappears without healing you. This is not really a factor in any%, but I thought I'd mention the bug, since you see it happen with SM in the run anyway.

• Arm bug

This bug occurs after specific wall bugs, as well as whenever you collect an item placed on a pedestal, leave a vertical pole or push one of the large buttons in Underneath the Sphinx. It prevents Lara from grabbing things, drawing guns, drawing/throwing a flare, crouching or performing a swan dive. The bug persists until you let Lara come to a full stop. In the few cases where that does not happen naturally among the following moves, it is usually best to get rid of the bug simply by letting her stand for a moment after the bug-inducing action.

• Flare throw bug

Passing through certain animations while Lara is holding a flare makes her unable to throw that flare until an animation from a group of certain other animations has been passed through. I haven't bothered with figuring out the details. You can usually work around this by lighting the flare at a later point.

• Title screen crash

If you press the 1 key (pistols hotkey) in the title screen, the game crashes because there is no Lara object placed in the title "level", but the pistols are in the inventory anyway.

LEVEL SPECIFIC TRICKS AND BUGS

TODO: Screenies? Videos?

ANGKOR WAT

• Swim corner bug

Fast strat: TODO: Learn this myself so I can explain it ????

Safe strat: Place Lara about 2/5 to 1/2 a square away from the corner, dive and swim part way down before letting Lara embed. After resurfacing, turn ~90 degrees to the left, dive again and be prepared to press and hold Roll(+U+R) the moment Lara bugs up.

THE TOMB OF SETH

• Slope bypass

The pick-up animation used for the flare-wall bug and the fast crawlspace exit can be used repeatedly to allow Lara to bypass slopes.

Place yourself at the corner of the certain texture as shown in the run. Make sure Lara "snaps" into place. Sidestep left once. You can adjust Lara's heading during the sidestep by pressing R to make sure she's moving in something of a straight line. Take a step forward afterwards to make sure you're standing right next to the slope. Turn to the desired angle and drop two flares. The exact position of the last flare only is particularly important since that is the one Lara will actually pick up, so you can still adjust the angle for the second flare. If the first flare lands all too far away from the correct spot though, you can just leave it and drop an extra flare at the correct spot.

After all that, sidestep left a second time, again keeping to the root of the slope. Angle yourself properly, then press and hold duck+action+draw (depressed in that order), until Lara has entered the pick-up animation 12 times. Make sure to let go of all keys including duck so that Lara will stand up inside the crawlspace, letting you turn around faster.

BURIAL CHAMBERS

• Binocular trigger bug

Do a flare-wall bug at the concave corner as shown in the run. Turn around, angle yourself, then use and put away the binoculars to throw the camera. The angle can be difficult to find at first, as there are no convenient markers. Roll after throwing the camera to have the camera shift yet further away from Lara's location. At this point, you can find out how good your angle was by listening to the bloodstream sound. The closer it is to the centre, the better. If it is stronger in the left speaker (after rolling), your angle when throwing the camera was too far left, and vice versa.

If the fly-by is triggered before the cutscene, you can just press look to cancel the fly-by and throw the camera again. Sometimes the cutscene is triggered first, but the fly-by is triggered during the fadeout for the cutscene. The cutscene will still play, and you can just press look afterwards to cancel the fly-by, then go on with the run.

If the fly-by is continually triggered first, try aiming more to the right. If nothing is triggered, try aiming more to the left.

VALLEY OF THE KINGS

• Manual targeting trick

Switching to the manual targeting mode and shooting without aiming at an enemy allows you to fire the pistols at a very high rate and kill off enemies of appropriate stature very quickly. It is a bit awkward to do so however, owing to how the shooting animation works. You must make rather firm key presses at a certain interval for the best results.

It is for the best to switch to manual targeting prior to entering the level. Furthermore, you should go to the options in the main menu before starting the first run of a session and place the cursor on the targeting mode selection. It is then highlighted by default in the pause menu as well.

TEMPLE OF KARNAK I

• Trigger bug

This one is very simple. After collecting the canopic jar, kill the scorpions, then do a crawl corner bug at the corner with no open top. Jump in place inside the corner until the level end just a few squares away is triggered.

Potentially faster alternative: Kill the scorpions BEFORE collecting the canopic jar, then do a binocular trigger bug to level end right from where the jar was.

THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL I

• Binocular trigger bug

Due to a trigger for other things entirely having been placed right next to the end level trigger, this is one of the very few luck-based runkillers in the whole run. The failure rate is rather low though, somewhere between 5% and 20% I suppose. Execution is pretty simple, and you can use the texture in front of you to angle the binoculars correctly. You must take your exact embed position in relation to that texture into account though.

SACRED LAKE I

• Swim corner bug

This is definitely easier than the Angkor Wat swim bug, and you should be able to do it pretty consistently. Note that this bug causes the flare throw bug. You can avoid the bug by waiting until after the bug to light the flare. If you light the flare too early anyway, you should just keep holding down the flare key when landing. Lara will throw the flare part way into her stumble animation.

THE TOMB OF SEMERKHET

• Binocular trigger bug

Nothing tricky about performing this one. One thing to note is that the flare for the preceding flare cancel must be lit early on, after flipping off the vertical pole. Otherwise the flare will not go out in time for the trigger bug, and you must wait until it has died, because a lit flare counts as an active object. Note that leaving a vertical pole causes the arm bug, which you must let wear off before Lara can light the flare!

After throwing the camera, you sometimes trigger a secret near the level end, but fortunately it does not kill the run, nor are you required to throw again most of the time.

DESERT RAILROAD

• Curve jump trigger bypasses

While these are pretty self-explanatory, it should be noted that especially the first curve jump out of the three is rather difficult, and Lara will die if you mess up. The curve jumps merely skip two fly-bys, and choosing not to use the jumps has no impact on the route.

COASTAL RUINS

• Binocular trigger bug

As you may have inferred from the trigger bug explanation, a live flare on the ground acts as a trigger bug conduit, and is normally disadvantageous in this run. However, the embed point for this trigger bug has a trigger for enemies right next to it, which will ruin the run when set off. For this, you want a live "dummy flare" in the level to suppress the trigger bug until you have had time to embed and throw the camera.

As in The Tomb of Semerkhet, there is a flare cancel shortly before the trigger bug. That flare should be lit at such a time that it will last until you've had time to throw the camera, but die soon after. A flare in TR4 lasts 30 seconds.

TEMPLE OF POSEIDON

• Binocular trigger bug

This one can seem unreasonably difficult at times, and I had trouble with it in the current WR run. I suppose I should have simply embedded a bit further to the right than I did. My binocular angling could have been plain wrong as well. Another possible factor, while not confirmed, is that the camera might have to land in open space for trigger bugs to happen. The end level trigger in this level is at the end of a narrow corridor and crawlspace, meaning you need a rather particular combination of position and aim to achieve that.

THE LOST LIBRARY

• Binocular trigger bug

This is a tough one. It's the first one where the embed location is so close to the finish trigger that the camera flies way past it when thrown. The most efficient solution would be to embed further away from the finish trigger, but for some reason no one's managed to make it work that way. Currently this is solved by tapping the look key after throwing the camera. Every tap will close some of the distance between the camera and Lara.

While aiming the binoculars, you must tap the up key 6-7 times, throw the camera, wait a second for it to "settle", then tap the look key 1-2 times. Due to the embed location and aiming at no-space, the method is not obvious from the run.

You will get set on fire >90% of the time when doing this, but don't worry. The medipack hotkey is functional at all times, including while choosing the binoculars and while aiming.

HALL OF DEMETRIUS

• Binocular trigger bug

A rather simple one. The camera can barely reach the other end though, so make sure not to embed too far left, and do aim at a straight line, or just left of it.

CLEOPATRA'S PALACES

• Corner bypass

This can seem tougher than it really is. Basically you just place Lara very close to the corner, angle her 45+ degrees to the right and jump forward. Lara should jump through the corner, bypassing the diagonally adjacent fly-by trigger. The range of working angles depends on your exact distance from the corner.

• Binocular trigger bug

Easy enough. Just follow the run for the location and angle.

TRENCHES

• Binocular trigger bug

One of the more difficult ones. You must kill the enemies as shown in the run, as it is impossible to avoid triggering them. If you get the issue which I did in the WR run, that the camera reverts to Lara after being thrown, there doesn't seem to be any other solution than to jump out of the wall and embed again.

This one requires you to tap the look key 1-2 times. Unfortunately, the first tap tends to fall short, whereas the second tap tends to move the camera too far past the trigger. You may end up having to try it dozens of times. Adjusting tap duration and/or interval could provide a solution.

CITADEL

• Flare-wall trigger bypass

This is pretty much the worst thing in the run since you're on fire while at it. You essentially perform a series of flare-wall bugs to move along the wall, bypassing the cutscene trigger. You must have a dummy flare on the ground at all times to avoid a trigger bug setting off the cutscene trigger in front of you. Care must be taken not to throw a dummy flare on the cutscene trigger, or it will trigger the cutscene as the previous dummy flare dies. Due to flares lasting 30 seconds, you must take turns between doing one flare-wall bug and two flare-wall bugs per flare in order to have a dummy flare at all times. Also, be sure not to press the up key while standing up inside the wall, or the cutscene trigger will go off as well. The up key is not needed at all during the sequence anyway, so you should just make a point of not pressing it at all.

The trickiest part of the flare-wall series is probably determining the best angle for Lara to drop a flare at. You want the flare to land as close to the wall as possible, and the best angle depends on how deep into the wall you are currently embedded. The closer to the wall you manage to drop a flare, the longer a distance you can move in one go.

• Movable object bug

Giving a push/pull command while simultaneously letting go of a movable object causes a bug where the object remains in the state of being moved, but it is not actually moving. It cannot be grabbed hold of again in this state. However, if you then move another movable object, the bugged object(s) will move in the same direction, even ignoring terrain and walls. The bugged objects will revert to normal afterwards.

The input window is one frame, so it is best to use the pause menu for frame advance in SS runs as follows:

Input: Depress action, wait for animation to settle, depress P, depress up/down, press esc, let go of all keys, press esc.

THE SPHINX COMPLEX I

• Curve jump trigger bypass

A simple curve jump to skip triggering two rather durable enemies. Should you fail it, use two normal grenades to kill the enemies and hope you don't run out of ammo later.

• Binocular trigger bug

Nothing special about this one. If you've made it this far, you'll know the drill.

UNDERNEATH THE SPHINX

• Flare-wall trigger bypasses

A lengthier sequence of flare-wall bugs than the one in Citadel, but certainly easier. For one, you're not on fire. Dummy flares are also not required because of the enemies triggered on level start acting as dummies/conduits. The tricky part is getting the camera to co-operate when bugging around the convex corner. Tapping the look key while facing different directions may help. You must bypass the trigger a second time on your way back.

• Corner bypasses

This is a tough one. It should be easy enough to jump through the corners, just like in Cleopatra's Palaces, but I keep having trouble with it, which is why I opted to do two of the four bypasses using flare-"wall" bugs -- And I still lost the run here a few times! Again, all the bypasses are simply to have the door behind you remain open. Leaving the level backwards skips two other levels completely.

THE SPHINX COMPLEX II

• Binocular trigger bug

Simple, but you need a dummy flare for this one due to nearby level end and cutscene triggers. Ideally, the dummy flare is lit before the last two flare-wall bugs of the last flare-wall series in Underneath the Sphinx.

MASTABAS

• Binocular trigger bug

Aside from killing all triggered enemies, you need a dummy flare again. After the flare-wall bug onto the top of the preceding mastaba, immediately throw the flare away and light a new one. The timing on that flare should be correct, so long as you move fast. However, don't go too fast; let the enemies in the last room gather around you before firing the grenade to make sure you get all the bats.

THE GREAT PYRAMID

• Binocular trigger bug

Very easy.

KHUFU'S QUEENS PYRAMIDS

• Binocular trigger bug

This strategy is actually slower than the intended way in this level. However, because we skipped two levels by backtracking through Underneath the Sphinx, we've missed the pyramid key! The solution? Do a trigger bug! But as luck would have it, this particular level has a distinct lack of convenient walls close enough to the level end trigger. With all that, you're going to have to waste some time going out of bounds and traversing the perimeter, just to find a suitable wall. There are several illegal slopes on the way which you can easily get permanently stuck on. You must be well aware of the geometry of the untextured parts, preferably keeping count of your sprint steps.

This trigger bug has a chance of triggering an enemy instead of the end of level, which will kill the run. However, it is even rarer than the similar problem in The Great Hypostyle Hall I, so it is not of great concern.

Note: This level suffers of an odd savegame bug that prevents you from doing trigger bugs. This means you must not save and load the game in this level during practice runs, RTA or segmented runs.

INSIDE THE GREAT PYRAMID

• Binocular trigger bug

Easy enough.

TEMPLE OF HORUS

• Monkeyswing bug

An odd bug produced by very specific geometry. If you grab the ledge in question from the face shown on the run (which you're not meant to be able to do in the first place), Lara appears at the monkeybar ceiling instead!