The Ultimate Portal Walkthrough and Guide - Stages 1-5 Explained

Portal is a totally unique game using mind bending physics-intense gameplay originally designed by two college students from DigiPen. Impressed by the unique concepts of the game, the design (and designers) were picked up by Valve and the game was released through Steam and the Orange Box around one year ago. Portal is one of those great (although short) puzzle games that you will love to play over and over again. This guide will help you wrap your mind around the concepts that Portal is built on, enjoy the game more, and be confused less.

The game loads with little pomp and circumstance (none, actually), with a first person view of a glass room and a big glowing yellow circle which appears to be a cutout in the wall. It is not, however. The yellow circle is, in fact, one side of a portal. If you walk through it, you won't appear on the other side of the wall. You'll appear wherever the blue portal exit point is. In this introductory stage, the exit point of the portal is outside of the glass room, on the right hand side of your character (assuming you are facing the portal). Use the image above (0.0) to help get an idea of how portals work.

Walkthrough:

Walk through the yellow portal and proceed around the glass room. When you enter the room pictured below, the ceiling claw will drop a weighted storage cube. Pick up the cube using "E" and walk over to the large red button located on the floor. Drop the cube by left-clicking, so that it lands and stays on the button. Now that the button is pressed, the door will open. Proceed into the "particle field" to continue on to the next stage.

When you enter "Testing Stage One" (Image 1-0) you will be above looking down on several rooms. Drop down and you will see the yellow portal. Gazing through the yellow portal will show you that the blue portal is not staying the same; it is moving through the different rooms surrounding where you are standing. The goal is get the weighted storage cube on top of the red button so that you can proceed to the next stage. To do this:

Wait for the blue portal to open up into the room with the box. Go through the yellow portal and pick up the box.

If you're quick, you can get back out before the portal switches, otherwise you'll have to wait for it to cycle around. Wait for the blue portal to open in the room with the button. Walk through the yellow portal into the room with the button and place the box on it. Wait for the portal to open back into the center room, then wait for the blue portal to open in the room with the exit. Go through the yellow portal and exit.