I am having great difficulty completing chamber of pits, do i have to complete this puzzle to progress, can i just bypass it and continue . If not i will uninstall the game which is a great pity as I was enjoying it so much.

I would rather miss grabbing the brace and progress through the game instead of being frustated and uninstalling it.

So can i miss this puzzle and go to the deserted tunnels instead. As far as I am aware there are no essential items (ie keys) in the chamber of pits to stop me progressing..

I believe there is a small program that you can download , which slows down the doors to the pits by 25%. Does anybody know about this if so where can i get it.

Not so sure about the program you mentioned, but I am getting closer to getting through this trap.

Changed the key config to W for forward, q for turn left, e for turn right, and space bar for backwards. Got as far as 3 trapdoors from completion. After so many tries, I was getting too frustrated, but I think making a key config that you're comfortable with, a little bit of practice, and little bit of calmness can get you through it.

Also, you might want to check out the Grimrock forum. I found some helpful hints at this URL: http://www.grimrock.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2055

There are two overwhelmingly important tips for this and similar tactics.

1. Turn down graphics to the lowest level for the duration of the timed test. Even if you have no perceptible lag in normal play, the tiny bit of lag you may not notice normally can make the timed puzzles unbeatable.

2. Do not turn unless it is strictly necessary. Move forward, back, left, and right without turning, except when you have to turn to hit a button as part of the puzzle. As a corollary, position your mouse on the button location and do not move it while moving, so that you only have to click the mouse button without searching for the right position.

Following these two suggestions, most people will be able to beat the timed puzzles, provided they know the correct pattern of movement and button pressing. Some people will have computer performance issues even at minimal graphics settings, and some people just can't do the precise movement under time pressure, but for most this should be sufficient.

I'd like to add:

3. Do not press and hold down on movement keys. It is a grid based system so if you press 'w' once it will move you forward one square.

4. Movement is queued. Meaning if I press 'w', 'w', 'w', 'a'. I will move forward three times and left once. After a bit of trial and error you can write down 'awaaa', turn, click, 'ad', turn, turn click... and so on. Turning (using 'q' and 'e') and clicking are not queued but you can group the movements.

A bit off topic, but I can see a bomb in the corner alcove - however the pit in front never closes, so how can I get to it? Any clues gratefully accepted.

There is a lever in the chamber of pit area, make sure it is down.

Also, I was able to get through this trap last night by using the forward, backward, and strafe keys. I configured the backward key to the spacebar. I got through it in five tries. Don't use the turn keys...they're too slow

I realize that it's hard to do, what with the trying not to fall and all, but check the wall in the opposite corner.

Make it easier? Well... it's already easy - just need proper observation. o.o I can not imagine someone is playing this game on "more ancient" PC than mine (it was build in 2003, single core P4). Still I had no trouble at all with chamber of pits - I passed pits a few times forward and back. I have all details on high settings, just SSAO is turned off, resolution 1024x768 and windowed.

Actually, I did get through this last week. The secret is using the right movement keys, such as forward, backwards, and strafing. No turning because it's too slow.

Yes, as you see it is no problem :) Making it easier will make game less challenging and kinda "dumber" like most of recent releases where developer aims to get more purchases than actually give players fun. I could understand that game could be "too quick" because of older hardware and I would be afraid to say such judgment IF my own PC would be modern one. But if I have no trouble with this puzzle playing on ancient PC, there should be no problem to pass it on today's standard PC.

Thanks Nesoo - and its better than a bomb ;)

The funny thing is, I did see the switch but I thought it had revealed the alcove and I had to find some other way to access it - I guess I just didn't click it properly.

My video card struggled so much a quick turn was impossible until i turned the details and resolution W-a-ay down.