Serious Sam 3: BFE/The Silent Riddler

It's a long walk to the Sphinx, and Sam needs to get there and solve the riddle.

First buildings

Sam arrives on-scene just before the buildings. While initially calm, there will be waves of behaded rocketeers and cloned soldiers arriving in small but constant groups. A technopolip will also arrive in the starting area as well.

Second buildings

Soon after you cross the small dirt path between the two trucks, various minor biomechoids and kleers will teleport in the buildings ahead. Health is generally sparse in this area, thus any damage received will be costly.

When you reach the paved road, kamikazes will teleport in ahead. They are followed by Kleers, and when defeated, a final wave of biomechanoids and kleers.

A sequence break exists here. If you head to either the left or right surrounding the buildings, and run along the wall surrounding the excavation, you should eventually reach a point where you can jump onto the wall, and walk along it until you reach the sphinx. As long as you keep walking along the wall, you will skip any monster that would normally appear.

Archeology

The section ahead has a low wall, with the intended path next to a ticket booth, which spawns rocketeers and soldiers when you approach.

The gate ahead is locked. First, you will need to get the key in the building on the right. When you exit that building, a large wave of rocketeers and kamikazies will attack. The best defense is to jump over the wall from whence you came, as that will channel the enemies through the ticket booth area.

When all enemies are eliminated, you can unlock the door to the left to get some health and armor (as well as C4 explosives), or continue down the locked gate. This is a point of no return, collect anything of interest before proceeding.

First gate

This corridor starts with enough ammunition to resupply your weapons, and it is followed by a large wave of enemies. First are the Gnaars, which are easily handled. When the Kleers arrive, you will want to switch to the rocket launcher, as that will easily defeat them in one hit at a long distance. Next will be the spiders and standard infantry, which is the end of this single wave.

This is followed by a more open area, with pillars. The center building as some ammunition, and approaching the far end will have spiders crawl in from the far wall. You can proceed to the next gate, and collect supplies before it (which activates a spider).

Second gate

The second gate has one kleer watching over it. When you enter the room, spiders will climb from the walls, mostly from the right.

The corridor ahead that leads to the sphinx will lead to three arachnoids.

The sphinx itself is a major battle site. Although you will need to put six C4 charges on the sphinx, you are also attacked by a large enemy force of various enemies. As the enemies are spread out, they are easily managed with your existing weapons. When all enemies are defeated, you are free to place the C4 without any distractions. If you need extra C4, there's a crate near the locked gate.

Sphinx

When the sphinx is opened, jump into the hole. Advance into the chamber, and pull the lever on the statue to lower one of the pillars. Stand on the marked floor tile for it to raise, and jump onto the lowered pillar.

In the next room, pull the lever and turn around. Enter the alcove that gives you shelter from the crushing ceiling. Ascend.

After the long corridor, you should end in a large room. Look for a doorway on the left. Collect the bracelet (a new weapon), and use it to open the door in the main room.

Extraction

After the scene showing the major discovery, head to the open doorway. You'll get attacked by one enemy after going through the door,

Once outside, you will need to wait for the helicopter to arrive. During this time, Mental will send his minions to attack, approaching from the sides with a variety of enemies.

Secrets

There are eight secrets on this map. If playing Serious Sam Fusion, there is a ninth.

The dumpster used to access the first secret.

1. In the first village, there is a dumpster on the left of the main road. Jump onto it, and then jump over the wall onto the roof of the building. Continue jumping across to the building ahead and slightly right (with the satellite dish and antenna), and jump onto the roofs of the adjacent buildings to reach a sniper rifle. There are other routes to reach the secret, such as finding a cracked wall jumping towards the needed building.
2. On the road between the two villages, head to the right. There's a distant utility pole that has a minigun.
3. In the second set of buildings before the paved road, on the extreme left there is a building in the sand. Behind it is a barrel that you can shoot. Collect the armor to claim the secret.
4. In the second village, in the second-to-last row of houses leading to the archology site. The one left of the main road has a walled off section with four entrances - three holes and an open gate. It contains a dumpster, and behind it is a health pickup that is barely reachable.
5. (Serious Sam Fusion only) At the far right of the village, just before the entrance to the ancient ruins, head right and you will see a building, take another right through a small gap in the building to find an Extra Large Armor. Keep in mind that picking the armor up will spawn a Major Bio-mechanoid at the entrance of the secret, so be sure to get out of there as soon as you pick the armor up.
6. On approach to the archeology site, there's a ticket booth that spawns various rocketeers and cloned soldiers when you pass it. For the secret, walk behind this booth, and open the door behind the booth. This will spawn a rocketeer who asks for a ticket, and Sam will call for a line up to sell additional tickets.
7. In the archeology section, open the door on the left. The secret is a mini 10 health next to a small crane, and there is also extra armor there.
8. In the sphinx after the crushing stair trap, the corridor leads to a large room. On the left, one of the alcoves leads to a spooky hallway containing a Devastator - this is about five alcoves ahead of the toppled urn.
9. In the extraction area, head towards the gate opposite the pyramid. +50 health found in the corner next to the gate.

Shortcut

An unintended shortcut exists in this level, allowing players to skip the archeology section up to the sphinx.

When approaching the archeology section, there is an exit to the sand to the left. Run onto the sand, then retreat, and wait until the sandwhale emerges for its attack. Run back out, and head to the right. At the second corner, there is a section of wall that you can climb and therefore avoid the sandwhale's attack. There are a few other parts of the wall that may be used to be barely within the detected bounds of the map.

For best effect of the shortcut, try to drop down in the mid-point of the sphinx's arena, place the C4, and circle around the front of the sphinx to place the remaining C4.