How to: Speedrun Portal (Glitchless)

Have you ever wanted to beat your personal best time on Portal, wanted to beat the game as fast as possible without glitches, or beat it fast enough so you can refund it afterwards? Well, you've come to the right guide! In this guide, I tell you how to speedrun the game known as Portal.

Basics of Glitchless Speedrunning

If you have LiveSplit to track your time, as soon as you start the session via new game after it loads, start the time. Now, because this game is patched and we wanna do the glitchless route, you're stuck in your little box until the portal opens. Once it opens, don't just walk normally. Instead do this basic thing:

B-Hopping

B-hopping is a good way to save some frames and is a little faster than walking. This is how you start the movement. Just repeatedly hit space and hold the direction you wanna go as well as using the mouse to look. Upon getting into the room with the cube and button, stand under the cube dropper and hit the USE key as soon as the cube falls into your reach. It is here that you quickly look towards the button and hit left mouse button to throw it onto the button. You may lose some time because it may roll off, but that's just how it is sometimes. Proceed to do B-hopping and throwing cubes onto buttons until you reach the chamber with the portal gun.

Obtaining the Portal Gun + Strats

Upon obtaining the portal gun (only shoots blue for now), B-hop and shoot a portal under your feet to quickly exit the chamber. With the portal gun, this is where things get speedy.

Making Quick Work of the "Gap" Test Chamber

When you reach the chamber with the gaps, shoot a portal at the floor and fall through. Once through, shoot another portal on the wall nearest to the exit then go through the orange. It is recommended that you stand close to the orange portal as you do this for maximum time saved.

Test Chamber 4

Once out of the elevator, B-hop your way to the pit where the cube falls and place a portal beneath the falling cube. Fall with it and place it on the button. Next, shoot a portal nearest to the exit and step through the orange portal and exit that part.

With the next part, fall into the pit with the cube and place a portal beneath you and the cube. Once through, grab the cube and place it on the first button (preferably the one nearest to you.) Then, shoot a portal at the floor and jump in, shoot the next portal on the wall behind the other cube, grab it and place it on the other button. Afterwards, place a portal beneath you once through the exit to fall into the upper area and exit the chamber.

The rest of the time you have the portal gun is basically a matter of safely guiding the fizzler ball to the power hole. The strats are as follows:

Strats

1. With the test chamber with the moving platform and fizzler ball. Use portals to guide the ball to the power hole, and before the platform starts moving, quickly place a portal above it and fall through the orange one. Now you can travel a bit of the platform and hop off when you reach the corner of the exit.

2. With the test chamber with fizzler ball and acid floor, guide the ball through the portals to the power hole. While the ball goes back in through the orange portal and out through the blue one towards the switch, fire a blue portal to the wall nearest to you, go through it, then fire another blue portal near the moving platform and go through the orange one. Then you need to get close enough to the exit to jump onto the rails and down onto the platform to the exit.

3. The last strat is all about momentum. In the momentum based test chamber, shoot a portal at your feet and fall through it. You should land on a staircase. Go up the stairs and fall into the pit in the next room. Shoot a portal beneath you as you fall and you'll fly over the hole. The last hole is tricky to fly over, as the devs intended for you to hit a wall and the level changes itself to now be beatable. Shoot a portal at the wall facing the exit. Idk how I successfully went over that big pit without triggering the trigger, but I think I slowly fell through the orange one, came out of the blue one, fell through orange again, and I think that's how I did that skip.

Upgrading the Portal Gun + More Strats

Upon arriving in the test chamber where you upgrade your portal gun, shoot a portal at the wall nearest to you (don't go into the big room), walk through, press the button, shoot a blue portal in the room with the fizzler ball, and walk through the orange portal into the aforementioned room before the other portal gun fires again.

Once the other portal gun shoots an orange portal that faces the power hole, shoot a blue portal in the trajectory of the fizzler ball. It should fly straight to its destination. After that, wait until the other portal gun shoots an orange portal at the wall where you hit the button, go through the blue portal, quickly shoot a blue portal at the wall near the moving platform. The platform should be stopped there, so go through, and when the platform moves again, jump off the platform and walk onto the other platform part when close enough and grab the upgraded Portal Gun.

Once you have it, hit the button in front of you to open the exit, shoot an orange portal in it before the door closes, and DON'T take the slow platform. Instead, aim at the wall to your right, place a blue portal just above the acid floor, and jump into the blue portal. Don't worry, as you can damage boost into the blue portal if your momentum was slightly off.

The rest of the game from that point is all about finding ways to maximize your time saved. From tiny things to major time savers, I cannot go any further into guiding you, as this is now a test.

Voltaic Skip

When you reach the test chamber with the button and cube blocking off the main test, open the door with your own weight on the button and shoot a blue portal on the ceiling in the next room. Next, shoot an orange portal at the wall nearest to you and go through.

Now, quickly place a blue portal on the ceiling above the power hole and an orange one in the trajectory of the fizzler ball. It should power the platform. Place a blue portal above the moving platform and place an orange one on the floor near you. Once the platform moves into your view, fall in and you should land on it. Grab the cube and hop off the platform. If you landed on the platform near the exit door, you did good.

After that, look towards the button nearest to you and hop off the platform. The cube should get out of your reach and sit on the button. Place a blue portal above the other button and an orange one beneath you. Once you fall onto the other button, put a blue portal in the exit room and fall into an orange portal beneath you. You should be at the exit and you may proceed.

I called it the "Voltaic Skip" because Placing the cube on the button in that manner saves time, meaning you can use less portals when doing this strat.

My Personal Best

With this updated and patched version of Portal, my glitchless route, as of right now, is within the 36 minute range.

More specifically:

36:27.5

Can you beat my PB? If so, tell me in the comments, and I'd love to read your strats for how you saved time.

Feel free to share your best times and Personal Bests when you do Glitchless runs! Now, I must sleep.