Beyond the Basics 2024 Egypt
Challenge of the Highpriest was released in 2024 within the Beyond the Basics 2024 Egypt competition. The volunteers who decided to participate in the competition received the resources for level building in July 2024, and had to complete their levels by September 2024. Every builder received identical assets (objects, audio tracks, textures…) and all they had to do was build a level or game using these assets and their imagination…
I joined the competition although I hadn’t released any custom-made Tomb Raider level before. Challenge of the Highpriest was my debut, and to be honest, I’m very proud of it. We were all working on the deadline, which was quite stressful, especially in the last month of building. Due to my lack of experience, I made a very large project, and when I realized that the game would be much longer than one hour, it was too late to back down and change the gameplay or geometry. If I had done it, I would have missed the deadline.
I consulted the BtB2024 Egypt team and the fellow builders and competitors and told them that my level wasn’t going to be one level, but four separate levels. I also informed them that the total gameplay time would be several hours, instead of one hour, due to my lack of experience. I even offered to withdraw from competition due to this. But the BtB2024 Egypt team and my fellow builders and competitors told me, “No, go on, complete the level by the deadline and don’t worry about anything.” I’m eternally thankful for their support, encouragement and assistance.
This story has a happy ending: I managed to complete the level by September 1 and participate in the BtB2024 competition. I didn’t win, but that wasn’t the point. I completed and released my debut level, and I’m very happy with it. I was able to implement some new ideas and make a game that is different from the majority of custom Tomb Raider games. However, the levels were large, I was running behind, and I had to cut corners and wrap up the game to meet the deadline. That’s why the game ends rather abruptly, some rooms aren’t lit as well as the others, some issues remained unsolved, and so on.
For that reason, I’m making the Full Game Remake version of the Challenge of the Highpriest. Here I’ll fix the errors and issues the players rightfully criticized. The gameplay will be different, and all those who already played the BtB2024 version of this game won’t have to replay it in the Full Game Remake version. New areas and new levels will be added, new animations, enemies, tasks, puzzles, there will be missions, challenges, advanced reward system, advanced ammo crafting system, there is going to be a merchant, too, and the ending is going to be much different. The BtB2024 version has 4 levels, and the Full Game Remake version will have eight levels. Spoiler alert: there will be aliens, too!
Challenge of the Highpriest STORY
After the exhausting adventure in Peru when Lara ended Dominguez and Trinity, or at least she thought she ended Trinity at Paititi last year, Lara and Jonah decided to pay a casual visit to their old friend Jean-Yves, whom Jonah promised the greatest dinner he ever ate. But by the time they arrived at Alexandria, the nature of their visit to Egypt changed unexpectedly.
Jean-Yves informed Lara that some dubious people were noticed near a village with ruins, with helicopters and heavy-duty trucks two or three days ago. The ruins in the Oasis of the Priests hide the entrance to the Temple of the Highpriest, or so the legend claims. According to the legend, ancient Egyptian priests used to come here to prove their worth and beat the Challenge of the Highpriest, so that they can become spiritual leaders of the pharaohs.
Lara and Jonah arrive two days later at the village with ruins and investigate the matter. As it turns out, the ruins indeed hide many secrets, and Lara must do a lot of things in the correct order and use all her strategic and tactical abilities to beat the bad guys to the punch. She’ll have to get to the Treasure Map before they do, and only those who beat the Challenge of the Highpriest can lay their hand upon it…
Challenge of the Highpriest STRATEGY GUIDE
In this game Lara doesn’t have her well-known dual pistols with unlimited ammunition. However, I made the game progressively hard, which means that it starts with exploration and only a couple of easy-to-beat enemies. In the Village, make sure to collect all resources and supplies for crafting ammunition. I was generous with supplies on all levels, and all you have to do is collect them meticulously. Make sure to pick up the Uzis before you enter the Bridge level. Make sure to find the Dodecahedron and poison arrow crafting skill before you enter the Caves – poison arrows are extremely powerful! Only one poison arrow can kill any mortal enemy, even the toughest!
Pay attention to details. I was pretty consistent. For instance, whenever you see an olive tree, you will find Golden Olives on its branches or beneath it. Make sure to pick up Golden Olives. They are used for crafting poison arrows! They also work as small medipacks (regenerate 50% of Lara’s health), but don’t use them for healing Lara.
The first three levels are interconnected and can be revisited as many times as you want. If you’re low on health, don’t use Golden Olives for healing Lara. Also, don’t use Large Medipacks to heal her – keep them for the Temple level. Instead, whenever you want to heal Lara, go back to the nearest level transition, to replenish Lara’s health. I could have changed this if I wanted to. I didn’t, because I wanted you to conserve the medipacks on the first three levels and to use these level-jumps to heal Lara. Simply use Golden Olives for crafting poison arrows, and keep the Large Medipacks for the last level.
Choose the weapon of choice smartly. For ninjas in the desert and smaller enemies such as bats and birds, use Uzis. Let Jonah kill three black cats at the beginning of the level. He can also kill two crocodiles (unless he gets stuck in the geometry). For Trinity soldiers armed with shotguns and grenade launchers, use Shotgun (red shells) in direct combat.
At the Heliport, the best strategy is to run to the left to get the Laser Sight, and then to kill one Trinity soldier at the time from a safe distance, with poison arrows. Other strategies are also possible (e.g. Shotgun, normal arrows, explosive arrows, Uzis), but these strategies ca be costly – Lara can lose a lot of health. And those Trinity soldiers that patrol high above the heliport can hardly be reached with Shotgun or Uzis, but they can be killed with arrows (with or without the Laser Sight).
Make sure to pick up the Shotgun and the Revolver at the Caves! Many players never searched the containers in the Caves! Also, make sure to take the ammunition from dead Trinity soldiers at the Heliport! Actually, every human enemy that you kill will give you ammunition! At the Caves, make sure to find the hidden area with olive trees (above the containers) where you can find 16 Golden Olives! Many players don’t bother going there, although these Golden Olives are really valuable.
On the last level – Temple of the Highpriest – use poison arrows to eliminate the centaurs from afar and from safety (use Laser Sight). Theoretically it is possible to beat the last level with very little health losses, but just in case, bring all Large Medipacks with you from the previous three levels. You’ll probably need them to defeat Seth. That section is very hard. Seth is an Egyptian god, and naturally, he’s immortal. First you’ll have to evade his attacks while you’re pushing two pyramids and disabling the burners. Two tough enemies will attack along the way, so you’ll probably need several Large Medipacks to get through this fight.
When you place to Isis Knots at the base of the statue of Isis, you can deal with Seth. Evade his attacks and take the Shotgun (red shells). Wait for Isis to hit Seth with her rays. When Seth is hit by her rays, he’s vulnerable. Wait for this to happen, make sure that Seth is at the ground (and not flying), and kill him with one single red shotgun shell.
Finally, the universal advice: explore everything. Explore the dungeons from which the centaurs came out. Make sure to find all secrets (additional ammo and supplies). Take every Golden Olive, loot every dead human enemy. If you do it, you’ll end the game with 100 shotgun shells. Use poison arrows for the toughest enemies. Fire one poison arrow from safety, and wait for a few seconds for the enemy to die of poison. Sometimes it takes up to 30 seconds for an enemy to die (depending on its stamina). Just be patient and don’t fire more poison arrows at that enemy.
Bear in mind that some ammunition respawns, especially on the last level! Wherever you have a boss fight on the last level, there’s ammunition that respawns! For example, in the chamber of Seth, if you run out of red shotgun shells, the ammo near the dead explorer will respawn. In the room with many enemies at the end of the level, the pistol ammunition also respawns if you run out of it. In the centaur cages, ammunition also respawns.
The purpose of this game is to explore everything, to experiment and try to find the best possible strategy and most economic solution to a problem. As I said, the difficulty progresses gradually. Remember: on the first three interconnected levels there’s no need to use a medipack. I cannot stress enough how important exploration is in these levels. Explore every corner: everything is there for a reason! You can find resources absolutely everywhere! Lara also gives hints. E.g. she comments that camels are beautiful creatures. This is a hint: pay attention to the camels! Most players never found two Large Medipacks and Arrows on the camels, because they weren’t paying attention.
Regarding backtracking: To reduce backtracking, enter the Bridge level when you have Uzis. Take Dodecahedron on the Bridge before you go to the Caves. You’ll need the Torch in the Village (twice) and on the Bridge (twice). Take the Shovel after every use (Shovel is to be used four times in total). Don’t leave the Caves without Shotgun and Revolver, Laser Sight and Shovel Blade.
Challenge of the Highpriest WALKTHROUGH by Nina Croft
- Challenge of the Highpriest Walkthrough Part 1
- Challenge of the Highpriest Walkthorugh Part 2
- Challenge of the Highpriest Walkthrough Part 3
Download Challenge of the Highpriest and other BtB2024 levels
Download Challenge of the Highpriest by Nina Croft from these pages – it’s free, and you don’t need to install anything – just download and play:
Download Challenge of the Highpriest by clicking the blue “Download” button in the upper left corner of the page: TRCustoms
Download Challenge of the Highpriest by scrolling down and clicking the name of this level: Beyond the Basics 2024 Egypt
Download all BtB2024 Egypt competition levels from this page by clicking the name of the level you want to play: Beyond the Basics 2024 Egypt
Download BtB2024 Egypt assets if you want to build your own custom Tomb Raider level located in Egypt: TRLE.net.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and to BtB2024 Egypt, where you can download the Builder Package. On this page you can also find assets from previous BtB competitions and download them, e.g. Tibet, Persia, Greece, Khmer Empire, Steampunk…
MUSIC: Main Tomb Raider Theme Guitar Cover by Milan Penฤiฤ Lima