Flipz, Post 96: Oh my... That is amazing. =O I'll have to try that, but that seems way quicker than my reflexes, to me. We'll see, though; because that
is an amazing way of getting through it quick enough. Would it help with least steps, or is there a more efficient one for that?
How do you beat Advanced Chamber 16!?
Dunno if you've beaten it since last September, but...
From the start...
Jump over the turret, and try to portal away so you don't get shot. Move along kinda like normal, things don't get iffy until the two turrets that give you trouble even in normal mode.
Grab a Weighted Cube, and use that as a shield. I just portals over the far turret, but apparently you can 'drag' another cube to guard you from both sides.
Once you're at that turret, drop the cube while crouching(Do all that while crouching, by the way), and portal behind the turrets on the other side. They can't touch you as long as you're behind them, and the ones in the room can't hit you either.
Next, portal into the radio room(You know the one I'm talking about, the one with the broken transport system, that plays Still Alive instrumental.), and portal back as many cubes as you can.
Next, go grab one of those cubes, and move toward the room, while keeping the cube 'in front' of you, despite the fact that you're backing toward the room, keeping the turret in your sights. Once you get into view of the button room's entrance, keep the cube in front of the turret's view, and drop it, and then fire a portal
at the ceiling above the button, pick up the cube, and get out of there.
Go back to the wall where your cubes are, and fling them into the room. With luck(Or just waiting a few minutes, they
should go in, if you positioned it right, if not, load up your auto-save and try again. Since it saves once you get past the hallway, you're save. It saved for me in the radio room. =P), then you'll get it on the button.
Once you do that, then you'll
really need good reflexes. What you're going to do, is drop into the portal, crouch to the ground, run for the room if possible, and then shoot a portal at the opposite wall, and then preferably under you or so. If you try fancy maneuvers, you will die, trust me. If you want to be really safe, and you have some left over, take a cube for a shield, though you'll have to recall that your reflexes and portaling skills are
still needed, thanks to the other turrets to the back of you, to your right, facing the door.
If you get behind the turret, then you've won, simple as that. Quick save so you don't accidentally mess up somehow, and are forced to redo what is easily the hardest part of the level, and then portal away past the final turret, and do a victory dance, as you reach the elevator.
I got stuck on 18 pretty early on.
Yeah... That one's easy to get stuck on... If you don't know what to do, which almost no-one does without luck or so. While flinging, you must face the ground on the upper portion you usually get to via the ceiling. Fire a portal at the ground quickly(Which is really needed), and hope you didn't miss the jump(I recommend quicksaving after landing the portal on the floor. =P).
Next, I believe you'd be at the part where you're actively moving forward across platforms, if not, it's not as difficult, though it might involve flinging. Even while trying to figure it out by reading about it, I couldn't put it together, until I realized I was shooting too high at the ledge. Once I remedied that problem, everything was fine. =P
From that point on, it was relatively simple, just continue using kinda advanced techniques to climb. ... Until the turret room. Oh boy, the turret room. It rivals that death trap of a level in Advanced 16. They can be destroyed, though. Both of the turrets on the right can just be knocked over by portaling from the far back left, where the button and switch used to be, and portaling right behind the towers. Slightly harder for the further back turret, since it's further away, and not as easy to get back into the portal.
The far left turret is rather easy; just jump into it from a very high portal, and push it off the platform, and jump back. Wait 'til it's dead, though... You don't want it auto-saving you jumping to your doom, like it did to me at least three times. Especially after actually killing all the other turrets.
Next, you need to go back to the spot where you activated the door. That
could be a pain. But not so much, if you utilize the fact that the turret's blind if you're crouching, until you reach about mid-way. Then, you just jump across to the part the platform uses to activate the laser rail.(I learned about that trick by reading about it, and I've used it a couple times since, in the main game. It can be useful. =P) After that, jump again, to reach the button cavern safely, since it stopped shooting once you reached the laser rail thing. It really is blind.
Then... You have to fling yourself up to the cube portion. Oh boy. So, the platform moved. To right under the button cavern. Activate the button, fire portal at door, fall down, shoot floor, fling yourself across the room(Turret's blind, it won't see you), shoot another portal as you're falling, fling yourself into the cube cavern. Fall down, and hope you didn't just kill yourself(Try and activate a portal on the other side just in case, and save, so you don't have to fling yourself again), activate the button, and portal yourself back, making sure to take the cube. I tried to send it across on the conveyer belt, but it fell off, and I just stood there going 'did it just do what I think it just did?!', and was sad.
So; that was not easy by far, but at least the hardest stuff is done! Right? ... Wrong. Yeah, uh, remember that up/down portal swapping on the pillars? They... made it harder. So, yeah, as soon as you fly into the air through another portal, the old platform disables and falls into the poison water. That means you need to be perfect, and get each portal on the first try. Looking down after firing so that you don't get a state where you're frantically looking around for the next platform, only to learn you've already passed it, and have to jump off to restart, really helps here. The only lucky thing, is it autosaves right before this part. =P
Then... You're finally done. I'd say Advanced 18 is much harder than Advanced 16, simply for cheap usage of advanced techniques. =P
Also, for those who haven't gotten any progress on the challenge stages, especially for Stage 14, the commentary mode has an
excellent pointer on how to finish with a very intriguing shortcut maneuver. Dunno if there are any other hints during commentary mode, will find out when I continue playing tomorrow. =)
