As we mentioned in our review, Portal 2 is hard. Like, really hard. But don’t give up just yet, because if you’re consistently hitting snags in the wonderful puzzler, chances are there are a few things you can do to alleviate your periodic portal problems (or the Three P's as they’ve been dubbed...just now). Our six quick tips will help you solve just about any level and turn that SaDOS into a GLaDOS.
The most common solution to a perplexing puzzle in Portal is something you simply didn’t see before. And who could blame you? Setting portals all over the level make it easy to fly around from end to end, practically without setting foot on the ground. Unfortunately, that means the second you walk through the circular doors to a new test, the first thing you’ll do is jump around like a ferret on crystal meth. Which is fine, don’t get us wrong. But every once in a while the answer is a big red button in the center of the room. Yes, that one. You see it now? Yeah, it’s been there the whole time.
Especially with the new gels, the key to figuring out a tough puzzle is often momentum. Sure, the new gels (especially the orange propulsion gel) are oftentimes the answer to a tricky problem, but their purposes are multifaceted. If there’s a curved wall, for instance, chances are you can run right up it with enough orange gel on it. Orange gel (propulsion) placed in a strip in front of blue gel (repulsion) will make you run and jump farther than you thought possible.
Sure, this one sounds simple, but it’s actually the answer to most bewilderment in the entire game. If you’re stuck and whatever you’re doing doesn’t seem possible, it probably isn’t. For instance, if every time you step on a button, a weighted cube falls, but no matter how fast you run you can’t reach it before it disintegrates, the answer is probably something different. Even if that cube fell right in front of you. There aren’t a lot of white-knuckle reflex moments in Portal 2, so if something seems needlessly tough to catch, or run across, or even shoot, well, try something different. Which leads us to the next point...
If you can’t figure something out and you’ve obeyed Rule 1 and carefully looked around the area, examine what you can do. Take the example of the falling cube above; if you can’t reach that weighted cube, but there’s blue goo dripping from the ceiling, try figuring out what both the gel and the cube’s purposes are. Is there a big button somewhere? Is there a high-up element that you could only reach by bouncing from the blue goo? In a case like this, using the goo to get on the ledge will probably reveal a new element that will help you catch the weighted cube.
Oftentimes visualizing what you think the purpose of individual elements is will give you a bearing on how to solve it. Rarely does a puzzle have more than two or three objects (like goo, cubes, lasers, and light bridges) that are immediately accessible. Considering the order in which one item must be gained in order to access to the next item will save you tons of time. The order can be hard to keep track of, especially when utilizing a single weighted cube for multiple buttons.
Littered throughout the Aperture Science Labs are buttons that need to be held down to activate certain events within the level. Sure it sounds simple, but countless puzzles can be solved by simply doing whatever it is you would do while standing on the button. If doing so doesn’t solve the puzzle outright for you, it’ll almost always give you a better idea of what has to happen off the button.
Alternative: Shoot two portals side-by-side and step into them. Then look at yourself.
If you’re really, really stuck, you can shoot a portal directly above you, and one directly below you to send Chell flying downward at terminal velocity. How will this help you? Well, it won’t. That is, unless it’s an extension of Step 2, Utilizing Momentum.
See, falling at terminal velocity allows you to shoot a portal somewhere else in the room and go flying out of it at ridiculous speeds and to incredible distances. But if it doesn’t work, no problem: It’s still pretty fun falling through portal after portal for eternity. Plus, who knows what type of enlightenment you might have after falling a few minutes?
