@zigzagtenniscoe Response [telegra.ph]

Ah, so you easily found a way to prevent the player from getting the orange funnel onto the middle floor when they break the portal connection between the close and far sides, therefore preventing them from getting the LC onto the bridge button which enabled my much simpler previous set of moves .

No matter, though, because this is the other solution I had in mind for when this was forced. (I came up with it before this update, in other words)

@zigzagtenniscoe That method you did leading up to the final sequence is unintended. I'll update the map soon.

Response [telegra.ph], including the solution leading up to the new method after getting a cube onto the middle floor , more thoughts, and, of course, spoilers (for the sake of any curious lurkers).

@zigzagtenniscoe That is basically the same as the intended final sequence. What I intended was for you to pull yourself and the cube up through the ceiling, then place a portal on the flip panel that is on the floor next to the funnel, keeping the other portal on the ceiling in the bridge room. Then, drop the cube into the portal, place a portal where the funnel projects onto, so that now you have the cube rising in the bridge room, then when it gets near the top, place the funnel on the main flip panel, jump across, and take the cube off the polarity button . Good job finding that.

But what I wonder is whether you did everything leading up to that in the intended way. Could you post a video or describe it?

Found another almost certainly unintended solution after the "final pull". The moves to get the cube onto the final flip panel button (including all setup moves between each actual usage of the funnel) are pretty simple and have been executed before by me, and end with a cube on the middle floor button and another on the funnel button.

I take the cube on the middle floor down and place it to the side of the white tile on the floor in the tall area, right below the other white tile on the ceiling. I lift myself with the reverse funnel and right before I go through, use the reverse funnel to pull the cube beneath me so it also gets pulled up. But now I'm on the other side of the portal, so I wait a second or two for the cube to reach the top and then place the funnel on the final flip panel. There's enough time for me to use the funnel to cross the gap and remove the other cube from the funnel button, meaning the funnel turns blue and pushes the cube onto the button that disables the final fizzler, AND I have a cube to put on the very final button as well.

This is also the very first method I've found where I'm able to take a CC to the exit 😄

@zigzagtenniscoe For the laser trick, as long as you place the cube out of the way of the portal (and thus the future funnel), if you get the wrong laser angle, you can just make a portal on the wall next to the laser to get back to where the cube is and redo the process, so there's not much time lost. I originally only had one half-width white surface near where the cube is placed and one half-width white surface on the wall in the bridge room, so that the correct angle was forced, but I thought that made the solution a bit too obvious.

The other point you made is a nice find. I'll have to patch it up.

Wow, that's a bit surprising. Very obscure for sure. Guess I can't put much past you with that, at least in terms of mostly logical moves, but I will say that if you don't angle the laser sharply from the point where you use it to activate the stairs so it's well out of the way of the portal it shoots through and therefore the funnel's influence, it can be quite tricky and somewhat tedious to determine the right angle to shoot the portal at on the ceiling, requiring many careful quicksaves in some instances. .

Anyway, I was under the impression that this laser method was the way to get a cube and blue funnel to the middle floor , but I just recently discovered another method where you sacrifice a CC to disable the fizzler in the far ceiling area again, so you can get to the far side of the map with an orange funnel initially, then use the long-timed flip panel to get back, but you go through with a portal on the two-long wall that's one block behind the fizzler which allows you to use a reverse funnel to access the LC respawn area. When you have the LC on the bridge button and the CC working the funnel, the bridge deactivates, so you can get back with either the LC or the CC with a blue funnel.

Is either intended? For the second method, it's quite neat but because you have to place the portal to the left, it's hard to not land right on the faith plate, you have to push downwards and onto just the edge of it .

@zigzagtenniscoe That laser method is the intended way! I'll patch up that two-high white surface exploit.

Been a bit busy so haven't had as much time to try and figure this out the right way, but I noticed two more probable exploits:
-The catcher that deactivates the white fizzler can be activated by angling the laser through the ceiling portal surface the funnel projects onto. This allows you to get onto the far side of the map with the funnel and a cube.
-This one's particularly egregious: You don't need to manipulate the cube in the grated area with the funnel at all -- the button disabling the horizontal white fizzler gives you enough time to go in there and place it on the button manually. If you have the blue funnel you can use the two-high grated white wall to get back to the middle room in time. If you have the CC on the bridge under the ceiling button and the LC on the bridge button, you're done.

@zigzagtenniscoe You were never meant to get to the middle floor with a cube and funnel that easy. Good catch with the reverse-funnel-through-the-fizzler trick. I've updated it.

Ahah, so you were never meant to get onto the middle floor that easy, huh?

Well, it didn't take me too long to notice that you can use the grated surface near the CC cubby with the reverse funnel and bounce into it using the faith plate, then place a portal on the visible surface inside of the room as you're falling to get yourself and a cube there, though I highly suspect it's unintended.

@zigzagtenniscoe Thanks. That's an unintended solution. I've updated the map to fix those loopholes.

A lot more confident in this one , but this time I didn't use any of the grated portal surfaces in the room with the bridge button past the laser fields, nor did I make use of the length of the timer of the flip panel situated right over the horizontal laser fields.

Before you replaced that one grated portal surface with the timed panel, there was actually another solution I came up with that exploited the fact that that surface was always available to use, and there were two ways I got the cube off the bridge button after the "first pull" . But you updated the map before I could show you that :P

I FINALLY figured out how to use the angled panel in the solution as well. I'm a bit surprised it took me this long, but due to the placement of the white tile above it I had always assumed that I was supposed to drop a cube through that surface and the angled panel would roll it onto the funnel. But I couldn't see a case where I would need to do that where I couldn't just funnel the cube directly up from whatever portal was below it instead.

But on the playthrough of the map where you turned that grated portal surface back into a timed flip panel again, it actually didn't take me too long to figure out when I really decided to challenge my assumption that I needed a cube on the button on the middle floor as well as one on the ceiling button if I wanted to activate that ceiling button with the bridge activated .

Hopefully that was the final missing key, I actually figured out the significance of the white tile with a two block gap below it leading into the middle floor room a long time ago, but was always able to avoid using it. In my solution video I simply use it to access the middle room with the funnel, but in my initial solution I used a slightly different but no less complex method where I flung a cube through the portal on that surface instead .

"You're really good at finding these unintended solutions" -- that's because I was, and maybe still am, too dumb to find the intended solution...

@zigzagtenniscoe The latest update only affects that laser trick that I said was only done once. The old trick allowed for a loophole in the solution, so I took the opportunity to make the trick more interesting while fixing the loophole. The trick still serves the same function, and is still only done once. The new OR gate is an equivalence to the clutter that was in the area above the bridge. The solution remains the same.

@zigzagtenniscoe You're really good at finding these unintended solutions. That trick you did on the bridge might end up doing a lot of damage to the map at some point, but I can at least patch the single instance of it depicted in your video. I'll update the map soon.

Definitely unintended since I never used the lift, the angled panel beside the funnel, or that one tile with a two block gap in front of it in the "middle floor room", the one that has the horizontal fizzler separating it from a room above it with an invisible timer.

The solution before this is pretty much the same as the last video. They only differ in the method to get a cube in the aforementioned middle floor -- the more easily accessible portal surfaces were removed, so I simply entered from the room above it first after getting a cube to an area from where I could easily portal it in after placing a portal on the only remaining physically accessible portal surface .

Also, I would recommend placing a "portal magnet" on the two grated ceiling tiles above the horizontal fizzlers. If you're not in the right spot they won't place properly. (On that note, I would also recommend a portal magnet on the surface above the funnel emitter. It's not a big deal but sometimes the portal's misaligned so the funnel comes out weirdly the other side. Just an OCD thing lol)

@zigzagtenniscoe Thanks. That's an unintended solution. I've updated the map to fix those loopholes.

New solution

This took a ruthless 10+ hours of in-game time (estimate) over a few days to figure out, plus some time idly thinking about it while away from the game.

And yet I'm still not sure all the moves are intended because I never use the non-portalable angled panel feature beside the funnel, and the end moves rely heavily on the persistent availability of the grated portal surface opposite the timed flip panel in the ceiling areas .

There's also still a few issues in the map -- I saw one of your recent updates mentions the switch to a weighted button beneath one of the CC droppers because it could fall off the cube one, but I had this happened to me once with the weighted button too. Also, you can lift yourself up with the orange funnel using the grated ceiling surfaces if you get into the grated area in the far ceiling room, where the final flip panel button is . Probably exploitable.

Also I notice the cube is still movable through the grate to avoid the first pull , but maybe this isn't something that can be exploited.

Finally I do have the thought process for this but it's three times as long as the last one :P so I'll only upload it if you ask for it

Oh by the second solution the one I posted is the second solution, the one I originally posted was my "original" solution which was also unintended, therefore this is unintended solution #2 lol. Gonna try it again now

@zigzagtenniscoe, Alright, I've updated it to hopefully fix the loopholes you've found. Check the Change Notes for the details.

@zigzagtenniscoe, you mentioned two solutions, but I only see a link to one video. (your most recent comment). Do you have a video of the other solution? That solution you posted is indeed an unintended solution.

Well, here I am again after another few hours... (I must say, both times I solved this puzzle the companion cube acquisition was by far the hardest single task, but who knows how it stacks up to the steps in the actual intended solution)

Another probable unintended solution . I never had to disable the fizzler on either side of "the bridge", or use any of the grated surfaces in the room with the button that forms the bridge. I also never made use of the small area near the companion cube cubby.

You can also avoid pulling the cube to be in line with the secondary grated surface that is meant to push the cube in line with the final one, because it can be pulled through the grate .

Also, you can get any cube on the "far side" of the map (basically the tall room with the tall fizzlers/temporary bridge/ceiling&wall buttons and connected rooms where it's easy to have a portal connection with) by pushing it through the laser, then getting yourself to the other side of the laser field and bringing it through . I never found this to be useful in the solution I posted above but just some food for thought in case this breaks your intended solution.

Thought process [telegra.ph] to get here -- it's mostly unedited, pretty raw, and long.

@zigzagtenniscoe You got it! People seem to have a hard time finding that. You're the first that I know of who has found it. Thank you for writing out your thought process.

Aight, this better be it. Took me around the same length of time as the last method to figure this one out, despite me thinking about both dropping the cube onto the faith plate from above the laser field and getting it in the funnel projected from the grated tile closest to and perpendicular to the companion cube separately, but not together.

More thoughts on acquiring the companion cube [telegra.ph]

@zigzagtenniscoe The way you got the cube to the blue funnel was not the intended way. Everything else was right.

Okay, is THIS the intended companion cube acquisition method? I really hope so. I spent over 3 hours on this alone.

@zigzagtenniscoe Thanks. I've edited the map to fix those loopholes. I added grating to the portalable surface at the back. The laser trigger controls the horizontal fizzler at the back, and the vertical fizzler it used to control was removed. For the companion cube cubby, I added extra room between the laser field and the fizzler.

My original solution

I found another way to get the CC without relying on bhopping but it's pretty finicky. Basically you do the same steps but to get rid of the timing requirement you just funnel the cube as close as you can to the fizzler without fizzling it, then take the faith plate up to the button that disables it and grab the cube through the laser field. I noticed a gap that's likely meant to prevent this solution but I could still just barely pull it off. It did take a few quicksaves/reloads to get the cube close without fizzling it though so I'd say this definitely has to be unintended.

@zigzagtenniscoe I didn't even know bhopping was a thing; so no, it's not part of the solution. The solution involves no glitches. While you're working on trying to find the intended solution, could you show me or tell me the solution you already found? It would help me out a lot.

Response [telegra.ph]

@zigzagtenniscoe Response [telegra.ph]

Some questions and thoughts [telegra.ph] I have on this map, because I'm not sure I solved as intended and am too lazy to record a solution video before typing out some simple questions that could answer that question much easier before doing so.

Yeah, I never would have solved that, lol. Those are some crazy complex ways to do things, it's no wonder I found every easier way to do things first. It's actually insane how far you stretched so many things, hope someone smarter than me can solve it - ggs :)

@IMYOURBOSS28 Yeah, I'll post a solution vid either today or tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF35Y9F07HY Round 5 - at this point, I don't think I'm ever going to get the solution you intended. Could you upload a solution video? I'm interested in seeing what parts of the puzzle are necessary and what parts are red herrings (and how I exploited said red herrings, lol)

@IMYOURBOSS28 Those loopholes are why I had the fizzler at the back-left in the first place. When I added the new laser field, my initial assessment was that I didn't need that fizzler anymore, but then with a little playtesting I re-encountered those loopholes. It turns out I need both the new laser field AND the fizzler to cover all the bases. Check the latest version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hz7MnqPOKc Round 4

@IMYOURBOSS28 Thanks. I've updated it. I think now you must be faced with the tough work of actually solving the puzzle. Hopefully. lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN-F7PyPWaQ Glitchless and throwless, but certainly not without cheese

@IMYOURBOSS28 No, it isn't. I didn't know cubes could go through grating. The solution doesn't use any glitches.

before I continue any further, is the ability of boxes to go through portalable surface grates a mechanic that is supposed to be used? I avoided it earlier because it seemed like a bug