The machine's narrative: overall arc, chapters, choices, endings, tone, and how the playfield
reads as a Portal test chamber. Shared: the owner writes the story and decides it; Claude keeps
the part names in it in line with the registry, and marks anything inferred as (needs
confirmation) rather than deciding it.
This is the single source of truth for the story (consolidated 2026-10-06 from the story
convergence, plans/story-convergence.md, retired 2026-10-08, CHANGES #71). The reasoning, the options that weren't picked and the
critics' reviews stay in design/research/story-brainstorm/ as history; the owner's decisions,
numbered D1-D31, are logged in its owner-decisions.md. Where this file and the brainstorm files
disagree, this file wins. Reviewed and approved by the owner, act by act, on 2026-10-06 (D25); the final review
brought back five items (D26); the final critic review's answers are D29 (2026-10-10).
This file holds story only. The hardware facts live elsewhere, one home each: every physical
part, its label, summary, area and wiring status in the registry
(tools/hw_console/data/components.yaml), shown by area on the generated
playfield page; features with their parts and status on the generated
overview. Once a piece of story is confirmed for a specific feature, copy it into
that feature's ## Story section in design/features/<id>.md (see design/README.md). Sound files
named here are in the sound library (design/sounds/catalog.csv, docs/sound-library.md).
You are an unnamed test subject waking in Aperture Science's relaxation vault. GLaDOS tests
you through Portal 1's chambers, a friendly Wheatley hides between them and breaks you out -
unless you let him take over. You fall into old Aperture, where Cave Johnson's tapes walk
you through three decades of gels and his dying rant about lemons, with his assistant Caroline
quietly answering him. You climb back up to a furious GLaDOS, burn her cores - or watch her be
destroyed - and choose: escape to the surface, dive deeper into Cave's ruins, or follow the
arrows of Doug Rattmann, the man in the walls. Cave's brain-mapped ghost takes you home
through time and reveals that Caroline became GLaDOS; Rattmann's silent fragments tell the true
story and end on your file: abnormally stubborn, top of the list.
A tour as the player meets it, bottom to top. Part labels in brackets point at the registry.
Two flippers [Left-Flipper, Right-Flipper] with a pop-up ball saver between them that bounces a
draining ball back [BSv1]. Slingshots sit in the normal places [SlingL, SlingR]. Inlanes and
outlanes on both sides [s-bottomlane1–4]; the left outlane has a kickback ball saver [BSv2]. The
shooter lane has a manual and an automatic shooter [Launch1]; the automatic one can serve refires,
extra balls and the like.
A Companion Cube dropper, mimicking the cube dropper from the Portal games: a diverter at the right
ramp's exit [Div1] drops the ball into a ball lock [VUK6], which kicks it up into a see-through box
[Servo1, the ball dropper] that later drops it back onto the playfield. In front of the diverter
are a few stand-up button targets. The right orbit entrance sits between the right ramp and the
dropper; further up is the right ramp's entrance. The up-ramp is 3D-printed and hides a secret
path feeding the Orange Portal [Up3], a ball lock next to the ramp that can also be fed from
the top (between the pop bumpers) or from the front (D29). The ramp's
fly-over is a Portal Hard Light Bridge of side-lit blue plexiglass [LED-Bridge]; the ramp drops
above the right inlane.
Behind the Orange Portal and the ramp are the pop bumpers [Pop1–Pop3], with the standard top lanes above
them [s-toplane1–3]. Hidden in the plastic next to the portal is a third flipper [Mid-Flipper],
fired by the right flipper button, that hits balls leaving the top loop through the middle.
A loop runs around the whole top, fed from the shooter lane or the left/right orbit entrances on
the outside of the two ramps. It has a spinner [S-Spin1] and a pop-up post [Up1] that, raised —
say during a second launch — stops the ball at the top so it rolls back to the top lanes or the
left orbit entry.
In the middle of the top section is an exit ball lock behind a set of drop targets [Drp2], the
Turret Gauntlet [s-exit-success]. The exit also houses the Aerial Faith Plate: a ball caught
on the playfield by a vertical upkicker is fired onto a platform on the exit; the ball hits the
pedestal button there [s-pedestal] and rolls via a secret path to the Blue Portal, another
upkicker beside the left ramp's up-ramp (D29: Portal A is the Orange Portal, Portal B the Blue).
The left up-ramp hides the Aerial Faith Plate area and the Blue Portal. The left ramp starts between the
left orbit and that area; its fly-over of two PVC tubes wound with LED wire is the Excursion Funnel.
It drops at the left inlane. The left orbit entrance sits between the left ramp and the
Incinerator ball lock [s-insinerator], with a drop-down post in front of it [Up4]. The big
Super Button rollover [S-RollOver] has a standup target in front of it.
The shot names, locks and derived shots are listed in shots.md (the shot list,
agreed round 5).
- Five periods, each a different Aperture, split into 10 chapters (D21). Only period 5 is
framed as the EPILOGUE on the chamber sign (owner, 2026-10-18: period 4 isn't an epilogue).
- Every period has a multiball as its high point (D9) and its own small ending when a game
ends there (D8).
- Choices made through the game pick the final ending from a tree (D18-D22).
- Three play modes: single, compete, and co-op with one shared score (D15).
- A test chamber sign fills half the screen almost all the time: chamber number, the next
shots as icons, the modes running, what the ball is (D13, D14).
- What the ball is changes per section, shown on the sign (OW-3): the Edgeless Safety Cube,
you, the Companion Cube, a gel blob, a turret, a core, ATLAS or P-body.
- Voices are real lines from the games only; a generated voice only for an explanation or fact
mode (D2).
- Each test's rule is on the sign (D26): the chamber sign shows the current test's rule as its
rule sheet defines it ("HIT THE LIT RAMPS TWICE", "SPELL CAKE"). Three on the sign (D34, H139):
where more than three tests are lit, the icon row shows the three nearest to done and cycles the rest;
the inserts show all.
- Route choices share one grammar (D22): ball held, two faces on the screen, the choice's callout with
the story's words on its top line and each side's shot on its bottom one (owner, 2026-11-04: FOLLOW HIS
ARROW / OBEY HER ORDER over THE LEFT ORBIT / THE HARD LIGHT BRIDGE; it replaces D34 H140's two words);
a shot picks (the sign names each side's shot), the side that fits you is lit and happens on
a time-out, and the announcer voices the time-out: "Interpreting vague answer as YES." (D32, owner 2026-10-24;
it replaces D22's flipper and 10-second default, which the shot-picked forks never used).
- The choice window (D33, owner 2026-10-24, T4): real choices are chosen, not timed out. Every held choice (C0, C1b,
the last core, C3, C5) gives 10 s to decide for a DECISIVE bonus, then a grace with no bonus:
both shots flash and the character nags once. In all, for C1b, C3 and C5 (C0 and the last core never time out, below): 30 s on Standard Testing, 20 s on Advanced,
15 s on Military Android; on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day it never times out - the ball stays
held and the nag repeats every 20 s until a shot picks. A time-out never counts as your choice: it
moves neither the meter nor Cave's record. Two moments keep their own clock: C1 (the ball is in
play, ~30 s of GLaDOS's nags, then a clear pause before she decides) and LEAVE FOR GOOD (10 s, short on purpose).
Two never time out at any level (owner, 2026-10-24 review): C0 (plug Wheatley in or refuse) and the
last core (burn or spare) - the ball waits for a shot. C1b's time-out is voiced by Cave himself.
- Every drain is the Emancipation Grill (D23): the ball fizzles at the grill at once, in every
period with a voice, and ~1 s later the chapter's antagonist mocks you (owner, 2026-10-18);
period 5's drain is static under a falling scrawl. The grill names what it took (D34, H138): the
drain's sign word follows what the ball is - CUBE / TURRET / CORE EMANCIPATED, and EQUIPMENT EMANCIPATED
when the ball is you (the grill vaporizes equipment, not subjects).
- The comply/defy meter (D31, D32) is GLaDOS's ledger, filled by choices, not tests:
burning the cube in C1 counts comply, keeping it defy. At each of Rattmann's arrow moments in 1B,
1C and 3A, GLaDOS lights her own "official" shot next to his arrow (white, with a chime and
an order): hers counts comply, his defy, neither nothing (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H106). Once the
Wheatley branch exists, C0 counts too: refuse comply, plug him in defy (H108). In period 2 GLaDOS is gone,
so his arrows there stand alone and count defy. Tests only colour GLaDOS's tone. The screen keeps
it hidden in play, but a small LED bar on the playfield, like a VU meter, shows it live (owner,
2026-11-01, the lighting plan's M2; changes D29's "hidden") and GLaDOS quotes your file when it turns (H110); at the climax it lights the shot that
fits you, but the other still works - the last shot decides - and it leans C3 the same way.
- Cave's record (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H108) is the second ledger: your three C1b picks in period 2 (his orders
or Caroline's advice). It feeds Cave's bonus and his ghost's tone in period 4, and leans C5.
- Your file shows everything the game noticed (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H113 + R5): GLaDOS reads it out at the end
(a word for how you played, a word for how you leaned), then a page lists the cube, the turret,
the moon rock, the letters, the hints, the sabotaged turrets, your path (Wheatley or not), the
meter's word and Cave's record.
¶ Where and when
Where each part of the story happens and when (owner, 2026-11-02: "make the location and timing in each part of
the story explicit"). The whole game happens in one continuous present, today, the day you wake; the past
appears only as recordings and memories - Cave's tapes, his ghost's era dial, Caroline's upload tape, Rattmann's
scrawls. Each row is a review point on its tab of the review page (tools/story/chain_review.py reads this table).
| Tab |
Part |
Where |
When |
The past it shows |
| p1 |
Act I. Wake Up |
The relaxation vault in the Enrichment Center, where Wheatley knocks |
Today, the morning you wake - years after GLaDOS took over the Enrichment Center |
- |
| p1 |
1A The Courtesy Call |
Portal 1's test chambers 00-05 and 10: the Enrichment Center working and clean, GLaDOS watching |
Today, straight after you wake |
- |
| p1 |
1B The Companion Cube |
Test chamber 17, the cube's chamber with its incinerator; Rattmann's scrawled den behind its wall |
Today, further into the testing |
Rattmann's scrawls, written in his earlier years in the walls |
| p1 |
1C The Escape |
The last chamber's fire pit, then the maintenance spaces behind the chamber walls with Wheatley |
Today, the end of the testing |
- |
| fall |
Act III. The Fall |
Down the pit under the Enrichment Center into the old Aperture shaft, deep underground |
Today, straight after the escape |
- |
| p2 |
2A The Fifties |
Old Aperture's 1950s test spheres, abandoned for decades: the Repulsion Gel |
Today - you walk the abandoned levels |
Cave's 1950s tapes; the sign shows the year |
| p2 |
2B The Seventies |
Old Aperture's 1970s levels: the Propulsion Gel |
Today |
Cave's 1970s tapes |
| p2 |
2C The Eighties |
Old Aperture's 1980s levels and the pump station (the lemons, the moon rock): the Conversion Gel |
Today |
Cave's 1980s tapes and his dying rant; Caroline's answers |
| p2 |
The lift up |
The lift from old Aperture back up to the Enrichment Center |
Today, after the lemons |
Cave's lemon line, on tape |
| p3 |
3A The Reunion |
Back in the Enrichment Center: period 1's chambers rebuilt as timed tests, neurotoxin in the air |
Today, after the climb up |
- |
| p3 |
Her Cores, 3B The Finale and the climax |
GLaDOS's chamber, Portal 1's finale: the turret waves, her cores, the incinerator |
Today, the showdown |
- |
| p3 |
Act VI. The Choice |
GLaDOS's chamber after the climax; Escape leads up to the surface, Dive deeper down into Cave's ruins, the arrow behind the walls |
Today, straight after the climax |
- |
| p4 |
The way in |
Down into Cave's ruins - dragged by the escort bot, gone down by choice, or fallen down the box's shaft |
Today, after period 3 or period 5 |
- |
| p4 |
The ruins and the Era-Dial Ride |
Cave's ruins: old Aperture's 1950s-80s levels, abandoned and decaying (owner, 2026-11-02) |
Today - period 4 is a real place in the present |
Cave's brain-map thinks it's still his era; the era dial replays the 1950s-80s as his memories |
| p4 |
The tape and choice C5 |
Cave's ruins |
Today; C5 is a choice in the present |
The 1980s: Caroline's upload, played as a memory (the sepia look) |
| p5 |
The empty facility |
Behind the walls and through the Enrichment Center's empty spaces, led by the broken PA |
Today, after period 3 (the arrow or the radio route) or after period 4 |
- |
| p5 |
The six dens |
Rattmann's dens across the facility, behind the panels |
Today |
His fragments: what happened since the takeover, his years hiding |
| p5 |
The box |
The ball dropper - the box - in his last den; its shaft drops to Cave's ruins |
Today, the end of his story |
- |
| wheatley |
End of period 1 |
GLaDOS's chamber: the core transfer at the Super Button; then Wheatley's pit |
Today, the end of the testing |
- |
| wheatley |
Period 2 with PotatOS |
Old Aperture, as on the main path |
Today |
Cave's tapes, as on the main path; PotatOS hears Caroline |
| wheatley |
3A The Itch |
The Enrichment Center under Wheatley: his scrap-built tests, the reactor |
Today, after the climb up |
- |
| wheatley |
3B The Part Where He Kills You |
Wheatley's lair under the facility, the moon portal |
Today, the showdown |
- |
| wheatley |
E7 Wheatley in space |
Through the portal: the moon and space |
Today |
- |
| endings |
E1 The surface |
Outside: Aperture's surface exit (Portal 1's parking lot; on the Wheatley branch Portal 2's wheat field) |
Today, after the escape |
- |
| endings |
E2 Dragged back |
The surface, then back inside, dragged by the party escort bot |
Today |
- |
| endings |
E3 Home by the era dial |
Cave's ruins, the era dial stopped |
Today |
Bring Your Daughter to Work Day - the day it all began |
| endings |
E4 Caroline deleted |
GLaDOS's chamber |
Today |
- |
| endings |
E5 She remembers |
GLaDOS's chamber |
Today |
Caroline's memories |
| endings |
E6 The box opens |
Rattmann's last den, the box |
Today, the very end |
Your file |
| endings |
E8 GLaDOS destroyed |
GLaDOS's chamber |
Today, the climax |
- |
- Chapter 1A - The Courtesy Call starts here.
- The first plunge: Wheatley knocks on the relaxation vault's door ("one of ten thousand"
subjects still alive, he says - you're the last one left, D34 H120: he confesses it later, in 1C).
- Ball 1 brings the Edgeless Safety Cube: the round "cube" that explains the round ball.
- The intake form (D34, H128): ball 1's start card adds "CONSENT: SUBJECT REFUSED TO ANSWER." (Lab Rat's
intake form), and "Your specimen has been processed and we are now ready to begin the test proper." plays,
held. E6's last page repeats the consent line.
- The chamber sign appears: chamber 00, with SUBJECT POOL: 1 (D34, H126).
Chapters:
- 1A The Courtesy Call: chambers 00-05 in Valve's teaching order, plus chamber 10 (momentum,
brought forward), three tests lit at a time.
- The first portal shot: GLaDOS explains portals; "Now you're thinking with portals" on screen.
- "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out" on the momentum test (the Left Orbit).
- The infinite fall: chained portal swaps.
- The unmonitored chamber (D34, H123): at the plunge after the portal test, held, "...we will not
monitor the next test chamber. You will be entirely on your own. Good luck."; 1B's first camera line
gets its answer at the next plunge, "...an outright fabrication."
- 1B The Companion Cube: the cube chain (dropper lock -> Super Button, where the cube
drops -> Incinerator or Blue Portal).
-
GLaDOS talks about the cube; Rattmann's wall answers. (The "...will never threaten to stab
you" line in the dropper's hold is dropped, owner 2026-10-18; H91's period 3 callback stays.)
-
Choice C1, keep or burn the cube: a shot fork, the Incinerator burns it, the Blue Portal
keeps it. Burned: "You euthanized your faithful Companion Cube more quickly than any test
subject on record. Congratulations.", "COMPANION CUBE EUTHANIZED" on the display, then
Rattmann's poem. The way out (H105): if neither side is made within ~30 s, GLaDOS's end
nags escalate, then a clear pause (owner, 2026-10-24 review: the nags and "kept" a moment apart), and she decides, "the cube is kept for further testing" - the keep side, so the
cube only burns by the player's own shot. The announcer voices it: "Interpreting vague answer
as YES." (D32, H118).
-
Chamber 17's long nags (D34, H125), held at a later plunge: after a burn, the ethics panel's
absolution ("...absolved... all test subjects of any moral responsibility for the Companion Cube
euthanizing process"; your file adds MORAL RESPONSIBILITY: ABSOLVED); after a keep, "In the event that
the weighted companion cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice."
(period 5's "Don't." answers it).
-
The laser relay (H89): the spinner is a Thermal Discouragement Beam relay; spinning sends
the beam to one lit shot, which "receives the laser" for a short window (on the sign until the
LED strips exist).
-
The layers start here, dripped by difficulty (H103): the CAROLINE letters, the comply/defy
meter and Rattmann's hints start in 1B at every level; the lanes' LIE / CAKE (with the cake
recipe) already run from 1A, each as its own parallel mode (owner, 2026-10-19). The rest arrive by level:
| Level |
Wheatley's visits and sabotage |
The small layers (catch me, the singing turret, hacking, the oracle) |
| 0-1 |
from 1C |
from period 2 |
| 2 |
from 1C |
in 1B |
| 3 |
in 1B |
in 1B |
-
The Surprise (H88, Portal 2 ch. 4), rare: "Initiating surprise in three... two... one." -
confetti on the sign - "Surprise." - "I made it all up.", and a small real award anyway.
- 1C The Escape:
- The last chambers; "the test is over" - the fire.
- The escape-hatch countdown.
- GLaDOS and Wheatley argue over the Super Button.
- The last subject (D34, H120): on the plunge after Wheatley's third hiding spot, held, his
confession: "You're the LAST test subject left...". The attract vault page shows SUBJECTS IN
SUSPENSION: 1.
All period long:
- The turret drop bank speaks Portal 1's classic lines ("There you are", "I don't hate you", "No
hard feelings", "Are you still there?") and every reset is the un-boxer.
- The pops are GLaDOS's cameras.
- Sabotaging the turret line is a side mode: sabotaged turrets fall by themselves in the finale.
- The official testing record (D34, H124): at the plunge after the game's first drain, held, "...an
'unsatisfactory' mark on your official testing record followed by death. Good luck!"; your file heads its
drain row UNSATISFACTORY MARKS.
- While CAMERAS BLIND runs (D34, H123), a lit Rattmann hint's passage stays open 5 s longer: the
cameras can't see you take it.
Multiball - The Escape:
- When the escape lock is full, ball held, comes choice C0: GLaDOS "Do NOT plug that little
idiot into MY mainframe." / Wheatley "Plug me in...".
- Refuse: Wheatley breaks you out; the locks shut down her turrets and neurotoxin.
- Plug him in: the Wheatley branch (below). The Escape multiball still runs; its end is the
core transfer instead of the fall (owner, 2026-10-24).
- On the refuse path, the multiball drains and Wheatley's grip slips: you fall into old
Aperture by accident.
- From far above, once: "I'm going to work on the assumption that you're still alive..."
- Cave Johnson introduces himself. No PotatOS on this path.
Chapters, one per decade:
- The roster (D34, H126): each decade card says who gets tested, and the sign says it in one word:
2A "Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians..." (SUBJECT POOL: VOLUNTEERS), 2B "...we want the best, and
you're it. Nope. Couldn't keep a straight face." (PAID), 2C "...mandatory for all employees..."
(MANDATORY).
- 2A The Fifties: Repulsion Gel (pops, slings).
- 2B The Seventies: Propulsion Gel (the orbits, faster and faster: the gel's sound and Cave's
seventies bites; no Space Core in the 1970s, D29).
- 2C The Eighties: Conversion Gel (the portals). The lemon target rises at Pull1, and the
moon-rock super skill shot.
All period long:
- The sign: a different style per decade, with the year as the chamber number.
- Cave's front desk: Cave in short bites on the standard moments (welcome, house rules,
"We're done here", canon-adjacent: a Perpetual Testing Initiative Cave's sign-off), plus
"Science isn't about why, it's about why not" on risky shots.
- Caroline is only seeded: she answers Cave in 1-2 seconds, her portrait appears in the speaker
bar on screen, and her honorarium is the bonus count.
- A secret fourth gel, the Adhesion Gel (Portal 2's cut gel; owner 2026-10-07): a hidden
condition coats the ball, and the playfield magnet holds it for a moment, "stuck to the wall".
- Choice C1b, at each decade's lock (ball held): Cave's orders or Caroline's advice. It
goes on Cave's record, not GLaDOS's meter (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H108): each of Cave's orders adds to his
bonus; Caroline's advice lights the shot of her next hidden letter for 10 s and warms her later
reveal.
Multiball - The Combustible Lemons: Cave's dying rant under the balls ("Make life take the
lemons back!"), with "meet yourself on the testing track" as its easter egg.
Then the lift up to period 3, with Cave's lemon line.
- 3A The Reunion:
- "Oh... it's you." - period 1's chambers return as timed tests, with Up2 opening a physical
shortcut.
- The neurotoxin clock with the shaker.
- The sign flickers and fails; GLaDOS glitches when Caroline's name surfaces.
- Multiball - Her Cores: GLaDOS's own personality cores seated in the three core locks, the
Anger core growling and the Curiosity Core asking (D34, H134: "Who are you?", "What is that?", "Where
are we going?"; at its burn in the climax, "Do you smell something burning?").
- 3B The Finale:
- Three turret waves, attack and defend; a time-out resets only the current wave.
- Sabotaged turrets fall by themselves, and GLaDOS names how many you broke as the finale
starts; the singing turret you spared sits it out ("I'm different") (D32, owner 2026-10-24, R3). Rattmann's
arrows stop here, and he stays dark for the chapter - except one scrawl at the last core
(owner, 2026-10-19).
- The cube remembered (H91): if C1 burned it, once, held: "I invited your best friend the
companion cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him." If it was kept, its
icon rides on the jackpot tour's sign.
- The jackpot tour (D28): after the last wave, a jackpot at each of the 8 feature shots, with
the music and lights changing by phase, then a super jackpot at the Super Button. This is
super_wizard's real ruleset.
- Climax (Portal 1's own core order, D29):
- The standup opens the Stalemate Resolution Button, pressed once.
- Drp1 is the rocket turret (D28, climax only, while Rattmann's layer is dark): the rocket
goes through the portals into GLaDOS, and a core falls after every rocket - the three
seated cores, then the fourth from the dropper. The first to fall: "Time out for a second.
That wasn't supposed to happen."
- Each core goes into the Incinerator. The first is the Morality Core: "You are kidding
me." - "Did you just toss the Aperture Science Thing We Don't Know What It Does into the
Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator?" On levels 1-2 only the first core is refused
(once); never on level 0; on level 3 every core once (H82), and the Morality Core speech
plays, held, during its refusal ("...to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a
deadly neurotoxin"). The rest burn on the first shot ("the rocket really is the way to go").
- The last core - your choice (D31): the sign shows BURN THE CORE / SPARE HER and the
meter's one word (COMPLIANT or DEFIANT); the meter's side flashes (burn on an even meter),
GLaDOS pleads for her life and Rattmann's scrawl points at the fire - his only sign since the
finale began, so the two voices of the game argue one last time over your shot. Spare her (the Super
Button): she survives, weakened, "All I know is I'm the only thing standing between us and
them. Well, I was." Burn it (the Incinerator): she is destroyed (ending E8): the
explosion, the shaker and her death scream. No time-out here at any level (owner, 2026-10-24
review): the ball waits for burn or spare while she nags. Beside BURN the sign shows your cube's fate - a scorched cube, "SAME
INCINERATOR", or the cube you kept on Rattmann's scrawl (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H117).
After the climax, the ball stays in play - choice C3 (never held, owner 2026-10-25). What you did at the last core decides what Escape
means (the meter's word shows at the last core just before it, D31; on the Wheatley branch
PotatOS reads it at E7):
- Escape: the surface. With GLaDOS spared, E1: "You win. Just go.", the cake and the start of Still
Alive, cut off by the radio (owner, 2026-10-24: the full song waits for the credits lap) - the game goes on (owner, 2026-10-19): Portal 1's radio crackles into Rattmann's signal,
SOMEONE IS STILL DOWN THERE, and you walk back in for period 5, then fall into period 4 (the
radio route). Leaving for good is the hard choice: hit the exit shot again (the Turret Gauntlet
exit you escaped through), flashing LEAVE FOR GOOD for a short window; make it and E1 is the end of the game. Time out or drain and the
radio wins. With her destroyed, the escort bot drags you back (E2) into period 4, as in Portal 1's real ending.
- Dive deeper: into Cave's ruins - period 4.
- Follow the arrow: Rattmann's arrow, offered only with 3+ hints found - period 5 first.
- The shots, named (D34, H132): ESCAPE is the Turret Gauntlet exit, DIVE DEEPER the Blue Portal,
FOLLOW THE ARROW Drp1, on the sign. The turret bank stays down from wave 3 until LEAVE FOR GOOD's window
closes, so leaving is one hard shot, not four; the card says "LEAVE FOR GOOD: THE EXIT" (owner,
2026-11-04, over H132's "TO LEAVE: THE EXIT, 10 S").
- Signal ignored (D34, H131): on LEAVE FOR GOOD the radio's crackle runs under "It's been fun. Don't
come back." and fades; the file says ESCAPED. and SIGNAL IGNORED.
- The lean (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H115): the meter lights the side that fits you - comply: Escape, defy: Dive
deeper - and that side happens on a time-out; the other shots still work.
- The way in sets the opening (four ways): after E2, the escort bot's drag ends in the
dark; after a dive deeper with GLaDOS alive, her "Where do you think you're going?" from above
as you go down; after E8, the facility without her (D34, H121): "Vent system compromised: Neurotoxin
offline." and a turret's "Is anyone there?"; after a spare, "GLaDOS: 12% POWER" on the screen (D34,
H141); after period 5 (the arrow or
the radio route), the long fall down the box's shaft, ending in the dark. Then the same "Powerup
initiated." for all four.
- The ruins: technical-difficulties music; the Faith Plate still works.
- A brain-mapped Cave who thinks it's still his era boots in the ruins and guides you "home"
through time on the era dial, looking for Caroline.
- His glitches are the Perpetual Testing Caves: wrong decades, wrong universes.
- His memory replays the moon-rock poisoning.
- He greets you by Cave's record (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H108): a defiant record gets "Ha! I like your style.
You make up your own rules, just like me.", an obedient one his approval.
- Multiball - The Era-Dial Ride: each lit shot moves the dial a decade, each jackpot plays a
tape. The super jackpot stops the dial in the eighties: ball held, "the part of the tape you
didn't hear" - Caroline's upload, and the reveal: she became GLaDOS. The tape plays as a
memory: a sepia, tape-worn look over the screens for that moment only (owner, 2026-10-19); period 4
itself stays a real place, so C5 is a choice in the present. Caroline's last line is her own voice
on the tape, "No, listen to me! Sir, I do not want this!", with those words as text in the speaker bar (D26; owner, 2026-11-01).
- Choice C5: STAY WITH CAVE (home through time), or FIND CAROLINE (up to GLaDOS) -
the tape has just told you they're the same woman. Cave's record leans it (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H115):
Caroline's advice lights FIND CAROLINE, his orders STAY WITH CAVE; the lit side happens on a
time-out, voiced by Cave's ghost. With no side lit (a tied record) it never times out: the ball
waits (owner, 2026-10-24). E3 plays Cave's verdict on his test subjects, then GLaDOS's Bring Your Daughter to Work Day line as the punchline (owner, 2026-10-24).
- What follows C5 (H86): its ending (E3, E4 or E5) shows as a chapter ending with "NEXT:
THE TRUE STORY", and the game goes on to period 5. On the arrow route (period 5 already played)
E6's file follows straight away.
Reached after period 4, or straight from period 3: by his arrow, or by the radio after E1 (the
radio route, owner, 2026-10-19). On both routes the box opens empty onto a shaft, and you drop down
to period 4 afterwards.
- No character speaks in this period (H94): no GLaDOS, Cave or Wheatley, and Rattmann never
speaks.
- The PA: the partly working PA leads you through the empty facility. It's mostly chimes, with
old scrambled PA text when the ball comes near a shot, and a few broken spoken fragments
("TURRET... ACTIVE... EXIT").
- Rattmann's fragments tell the true story in graphics. Where possible the ball is held for
about 1 second when one shows, so there's time to look at the art (D27).
- Drp1 is his panel: knocked down, it opens a hidden passage behind the panels. It's his main
shot and the way into all six dens (D26, D29): his arrow lights a shot, make it, then get
the ball through the passage. Each den has its own scrawl, den art and music.
- The hidden room shows his dens all game (D30, owner 2026-10-18, H1+H2): a small display
behind Drp1's passage. Each period has its own den there - period 1 his early scrawls, period
2 the Old Aperture den, period 3 the cake-recipe den, period 4 the deep den, period 5 his full
wall - and every hint you find in periods 1-4 adds its fragment to the room straight away.
- His murals from Portal 2 are period 5's art (D26).
- The hints you found through the game pin to his wall, on screen and on a row of LEDs in a
playfield wall. A player who found none still plays a full period. If you burned the cube,
it's on his wall too, as a scrawl (D32, owner 2026-10-24, R4).
- Multiball - A Clear Head: the scrawls turn clean.
- Climax - Somebody Should Open the Box: the ball dropper is the box; the subject inside is
alive.
- The end: your file - ABNORMALLY STUBBORN. TOP OF THE LIST.
Portal 2's own story, by choice:
- End of period 1: the Escape multiball as on the refuse path, then the core transfer at the
Super Button (owner, 2026-10-24). Wheatley takes over and drops you down the pit on purpose:
"NOW WHO'S A MORON?"
- Period 2: as above, but with PotatOS (GLaDOS as a potato) riding along, with her fall and
lift lines. In 2C she hears Caroline: "why do I know this woman?"
- Period 3 is Wheatley's:
- 3A The Itch: his scrap tests and the reactor, under a sign that reads WHEATLEY LABORATORIES (D34, H136: Portal 2 ch. 8's rebranding, his art on the sign). The Space Core's faster babble lives here
(on the orbits) and at E7, not in period 2 (D29).
- Multiball - the corrupted cores (4 balls, owner 2026-10-24).
- What Wheatley is (H101): before the boobytrapped button, ball held, PotatOS: "Once, they
even attached an Intelligence Dampening Sphere on me. It clung to my brain like a tumor..."
then "Yes. You're the tumor."
- 3B The Part Where He Kills You: the boobytrapped Stalemate button and the moon portal
(powered by your moon rock if you took it). "SPACE!" - Wheatley in space (E7); the magnet
grabs the ball by the Orange Portal as the moon pulls him out.
- PotatOS reads your file (owner, 2026-10-24): back in her body, GLaDOS gives a one-line
verdict on your choices, with the meter's word on screen (COMPLIANT or DEFIANT, as at the trunk's last core; an even
meter shows DEFIANT there too, with her own even line). Then C3.
- Escape is E1 with Portal 2's own finish (owner, 2026-10-24): the same surface, radio and
LEAVE FOR GOOD, with the turret opera (Cara Mia Addio) and the cube thrown out after you at the
surface, and Want You Gone on the radio route's way out and the credits lap.
E2 and E8 can't happen on this branch: GLaDOS is never spared or burned here.
- Periods 4-5: as above.
When a game ends inside a period: that period's small ending, then "NEXT: CHAPTER ..." and
your file.
- Period 1: back to the vault, "You are a horrible person."
- Period 2: Cave fires you, "Box. Your stuff. Out the front door. Parking lot. Car. Goodbye."
- Period 3: "Didn't we have some fun, though?" On the Wheatley branch: "NOW WHO'S A MORON?"
- Period 4: "Say goodbye, Caroline."
- Period 5: a scrawl and a radio crackle.
The final endings depend on these choices:
- C0: plug Wheatley in or refuse.
- C1: keep or burn the cube.
- C1b: Cave's orders or Caroline's advice.
- C2: comply or defy, a meter filled by your choices (D31), shown as one word at the last core
(D29). On the Wheatley branch the word shows at E7 instead, read out by PotatOS.
- C3: escape, dive deeper, or follow the arrow.
- C4: the hidden CAROLINE letters.
- C5: stay with Cave (home), or find Caroline (up to GLaDOS).
| Ending |
When |
What it is |
| E1 The surface |
Escape, GLaDOS spared (on the Wheatley branch: any escape) |
"You win." / "Just go." / "Killing you? Is hard." - Portal 1's cake. Then the radio: period 5, then period 4 (the radio route); only making LEAVE FOR GOOD in its short window ends the game here (owner, 2026-10-19), with GLaDOS's goodbye "It's been fun. Don't come back." (saved for it, owner 2026-10-24), then the credits lap with Still Alive (no lap before the radio, owner 2026-10-22; at the surface only a short slice of the song plays, cut off by the radio, owner 2026-10-24). On the Wheatley branch, Portal 2's finish: the turret opera (Cara Mia Addio) at the surface and the cube thrown out after you, Want You Gone on the radio route's way out and the credits lap (owner, 2026-10-24) |
| E2 Dragged back |
Escape, GLaDOS destroyed |
The surface, then the escort bot drags you back: on to period 4; the drag card reads ASSUME THE PARTY ESCORT SUBMISSION POSITION over a screenshot of the surface, Portal's parking lot with her remains (owner, 2026-11-04, over D34 H137's retrieval order). Not on the Wheatley branch |
| E3 Home by the era dial |
C5: stay with Cave |
The dial stops on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day - the screen reads "THE DAY IT ALL BEGAN" (owner, 2026-11-01); the card adds "YOUR TESTING PROTOCOL WAS NAMED AFTER THIS DAY." (level 0's name, D29). A chapter ending: then period 5 |
| E4 Caroline deleted |
C5: find Caroline, no CAROLINE letters |
"Goodbye, Caroline." - "Caroline deleted." - "Just go." A chapter ending: then period 5 |
| E5 She remembers |
C5: find Caroline, all of CAROLINE found |
"Being Caroline taught me a valuable lesson... you were my best friend." A chapter ending: then period 5 |
| E6 The box opens |
Last of every game that reaches period 5 (H86) |
Your file; with every hint found, Rattmann's last scrawl: the true ending. On the radio route the file adds ESCAPED. CAME BACK ANYWAY. |
| E7 Wheatley in space |
The Wheatley branch's climax |
"SPACE!" - PotatOS reads your file (the meter's word) - then the choice |
| E8 GLaDOS destroyed |
Period 3's climax: you burn the last core (D31); not on the Wheatley branch |
The explosion, the shaker and her death scream (D29) - then the choice |
What colours an ending:
- the cube you kept (it comes along) or burned (the scorched cube is thrown out after you);
- the singing turret you spared (the opera plays; on the Wheatley branch's E1 it always plays, Portal 2's own finish, owner 2026-10-24);
- the hints you found (the wall's fill);
- how you played, read out from your file (K1, owner 2026-10-22): GLaDOS's "Let's look at their
files..." and one word from your game - a tilt "Cheater.", many drains "Hopeless. Just hopeless.",
lots of shots "Aggressive. I like that." (Portal 2's co-op credits); then a word for how you
leaned - "Problems with authority." or "Perfectionist. What's wrong with that?" - and "Arsonist."
if you burned the cube, with how far on screen ("MARGINALLY DEFIANT"). A second page lists
everything the game noticed (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H113 + R5), with D34's rows: UNSATISFACTORY MARKS
(H124), MORAL RESPONSIBILITY: ABSOLVED after a burn (H125), INSTRUCTIONS IGNORED: n - the arrow moments
where you took neither shot, read out "Ignores directions." at 3 or more (H127) - and ENDINGS ON
RECORD: n OF 8 from the machine's statistics (H143).
Balls still in play after a final ending become a credits lap (H65, owner asked for the
definition 2026-10-22). What it is:
- When: after a final ending that ends your story (E1 once you make LEAVE FOR GOOD, E6 at the
very end) while you still have balls: the ball in play and any balls left to plunge. Not between
E1's surface and the radio (owner, 2026-10-22): E1 goes straight on to the radio.
- What you play: a victory lap, not a mode to win. Every shot is lit; each shot scores and
rolls the next line of the credits on the display (the names, Portal style). No story, no
choices, no small ending.
- Music: Still Alive (or Want You Gone on the Wheatley branch).
- Drains: no drain penalty (no fizzle-and-mock, no ball save). The lap ends when the balls are
gone; then the game ends and your file shows.
- In compete: MPF can't end one player's game early, so a player who has finished plays
credits laps on their remaining turns while the others play on; a last screen ranks everyone.
- Not built yet.
- Compete (2-4 players):
- Each player plays the same acts at their own pace, with their own sign, choices and endings.
- Between turns GLaDOS turns them against each other, scoring their meters as science
collaboration points: "Blue is awarded five points!" / "...penalized fifty science
collaboration points." (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H116).
- A finished player plays credits laps on their turns, and a last screen ranks the players.
- Co-op (2 players, one shared score):
- Choosing it: a separate co-op button picks co-op.
- Under the hood: MPF runs one player, and the two humans take turns ball by ball.
- The players: ATLAS and P-body (GLaDOS's lines call them Blue and Orange).
- The meter: one shared meter for both robots (D32, H116).
- The story: Portal 2's co-op courses on the toys - Calibration, Team Building (pops, lanes,
turrets), Mass and Velocity (Faith Plate), Hard-Light Surfaces (bridge), Excursion Funnels
(funnel ramp), Mobility Gels (slings, pops, orbits) - each course ending with a retrieval.
- Co-op multiball: one ball per robot, and ATLAS takes the left flipper button, P-body the
right (D26).
- The finale, the human vault: both players press together while the ball is held in a lock.
Then GLaDOS reads the humans' files. If they don't press together: Plan B, "We need humans."
- Small endings: disassembly, "doing a great job of disappointing me", "This close and you
are going to fail me?"
¶ The chapter select and length
- The chapter select: the era-select button in attract offers all 10 chapters as start
points.
- Each start shows a recap card and sets fixed defaults: the refuse path, the cube burned, the
meter neutral, no letters, no hints. The recap card lists these defaults, so the player knows
the state the chapter starts in (D27).
- A chapter start gives no credit toward the full ending.
- The Wheatley branch's two period-3 chapters (3A The Itch, 3B The Part Where He Kills You) are
always offered too, alongside the 10 (owner, 2026-10-24); until the branch is built they show greyed out, "COMING SOON" (owner, 2026-10-24). Their starts default to the
plug-in path (PotatOS rode along in period 2) instead of the refuse path; the other defaults
stay the same (owner, 2026-10-24).
- Every chapter pays off for a beginner: it switches on only its own layers and has one story
beat within about 5 shots.
- Length: an expert's full run takes about 25-30 minutes (step 4's model, owner 2026-10-07;
to measure on the cabinet). The held-time budget (D34, H133): tools/sim/playthrough.py sums every
held second per level next to the game length, so new held lines can be checked against it.
- The base screen: the relaxation vault, with the announcer's "Good morning. You have been in
suspension for nine nine nine... nine nine ni-" (D28: announcer_openingcourtesy01.ogg, cut
before the courtesy call) and the real idle days on screen.
- Pages in rotation: Rattmann's murals (one per period reached); the title card "Now you're
thinking with portals"; the rules cards, the statistics and the quotes (the chamber-sign tour, the
high-score files and the certificate wall dropped from the rotation, owner 2026-10-25).
- GLaDOS remembers (D32, owner 2026-10-24, H111): if the last game burned her (E8), the next game opens with
"I've been really busy being dead. You know, after you MURDERED ME." The attract statistics
count each game's shot at the last core: SUBJECTS WHO COMPLIED (spared) or DEFIED (burned). Mercy
leaves a mark too (D34, H141): after a spare, the next game opens with a spare-side line (to pick).
- The cabinet as Aperture (D34, H130): the statistics add SUBJECTS RELEASED (games that made LEAVE FOR
GOOD) next to TEST SUBJECTS PROCESSED; the high-score table is SUBJECTS OF RECORD; the service menu's
title reads ADMINISTRATOR ACCESS. (H137's rare BBS attract page was dropped, owner 2026-11-04.)
- Lights: the portals breathing together; the turrets waking now and then.
- Music: both, alternating (D29): Portal 1's radio mix, then a shuffled Portal 2 soundtrack
track, with radio static between them (AT2's playlist, owner 2026-10-08, plus the radio).
- Built 2026-10-08 (CHANGES #74): the pages, voice and music above, except the jukebox, the
explanation mode, the chapter select, the turrets waking (no turret LEDs yet) and the radio
mix's turn in the music (the build plays the Portal 2 playlist only); see design/SCREENS.md
and design/attract-pages.yaml.
- Voice: rare callouts, at most one every few minutes, with an operator setting to turn them
off.
- The explanation mode (H92), on a flipper hold: hold both flippers in attract for HOW TO
PLAY - each period's sign rules (no developer commentary clips: dropped by the owner, 2026-11-01).
Attract only, never in a game.
- Hidden: a secret jukebox.
- The trunk first: period 1 with the chamber sign and the small endings, then period 2, then
period 3 on the refuse path with E1, then period 5, then period 4.
- Stretch goals: the Wheatley branch (C0 isn't offered until it exists), the co-op courses,
and the playfield's small screen.
- A fallback until the launch-lane diverter exists: the dropper beats (the cores, the lock,
the box) can be loaded by a shot.
- Hardware positions (
design/research/story-brainstorm/hardware-ideas.md):
- the 3 core locks;
- Drp1's hidden passage;
- Up2's shortcut gate;
- the LED strips and the hint LED row;
- the small playfield screen;
- the magnet, the shaker, the launch-lane diverter, the co-op button and the tilt switch;
- a knock-down coil on one turret-bank target, so a sabotaged turret really falls (HW-9).
- Audio edits (
TODO.md; made 2026-10-31: Cave's named cuts, the Fine Print's bites, "We're done
here" and the momentum line's two bites, all to listen):
- Cave in short bites: the 819 candidates wait on the owner's picks;
- the single broken PA words (the fragments themselves are made);
- a listen on GLaDOS's death scream for E8 (
glados_escape_02_spheredestroy4-01) and on The
Surprise's three lines;
- a listening pass on Caroline's speech-to-text lines.
- Still to write:
- the chapter rule sheets (what each chapter's tests are, on which shots): drafted in
rule-sheets.md, with the toy table (reviewed 2026-10-07; numbers to balance);
- the callout script per event: drafted in callouts.md;
- the art list: its own plan,
plans/art-and-screens.md.
- Earlier hardware questions (Portal A's part, the standup positions, VUK roles) are tracked
in shots.md's hardware answers.
- Final critic review (2026-10-10), acted on in the story files (D29, CHANGES #101):
story-final-review.md, the full panel in
critics-final-story.md. Taken: H82, H83,
H84 (c), H86, H88, H89, H91, H92, H94, H98, H101, H103, H105, the meter's word at C3, the
Orange/Blue portal names, the canon cube-burn line, attract's alternating music, six dens via
Drp1. Not now: H85, H87, H90, H93, H99, H100, H102, H104; skipped: H95. Later (TODO.md): H96
(numbers per level) and H97 (Still Alive wired). The built modes follow in phase 2 of
plans/story-final-review.md.
- The length's level: the 25-30 minutes and the "beat within ~5 shots" don't name a
difficulty level yet (H96, later).