100% Achievement Guide

By Scot·Updated August 7, 2026

Tactical Quick Answer

Portal 2 has 51 Steam achievements, and a complete 100 percent run takes 15 to 25 hours depending on how fast you clear the co-op campaign and the trickier optional unlocks. Nothing is permanently missable, because you can replay any chapter from chapter select and any co-op course from the Hub. The lowest global unlock rates belong to Still Alive, Talent Show, and Portal Conservation Society in co-op, and to Smash TV in single-player at 3.7 percent.

Portal 2 has 51 Steam achievements. The Xbox 360 version has 50 for 1000G, omitting "Talent Show", and the PS3 version has 51 trophies in total: 42 bronze, 5 silver, 3 gold, and the Platinum, which is counted within the 51 and not added on top. This guide covers the Steam (PC) list. A complete 100% run takes 15 to 25 hours depending on how quickly you handle the co-op campaign and the trickier optional achievements.

No achievement is permanently missable. You can replay any chapter from the chapter select menu after completing the story, and co-op courses are replayable from the Hub at any time.

Single-Player Story Achievements

These unlock automatically as you play through the campaign. You cannot miss them.

Achievement	Chapter	How to Unlock	Global Unlock
Wake Up Call	1	Survive the manual override.	74.3%
You Monster	1	Reunite with GLaDOS.	64.9%
Undiscouraged	2	Complete the first Thermal Discouragement Beam test.	62.8%
Bridge Over Troubling Water	3	Complete the first Hard Light Bridge test.	53.4%
SaBOTour	4	Make a break for it.	46.6%
Stalemate Associate	5	Press the stalemate resolution button.	45.6%
Tater Tote	6	Carry science forward (potato-GLaDOS through Old Aperture).	41.1%
Vertically Unchallenged	6	Master the Repulsion Gel.	43.0%
Stranger Than Friction	7	Master the Propulsion Gel.	39.5%
White Out	7	Complete the first Conversion Gel test.	38.4%
Tunnel of Funnel	8	Master the Excursion Funnel.	35.2%
Dual Pit Experiment	8	Do the same test twice.	37.1%
The Part Where He Kills You	9	This is that part.	34.5%
Lunacy	9	That just happened. (Complete the game.)	34.2%

Single-Player Optional Achievements

These require specific actions. All can be earned on any playthrough or from chapter select.

Easy (Comes Naturally)

Achievement	How to Unlock	Chapter	Global Unlock	Tips
Pit Boss	Show that pit who's boss.	9	7.9%	At the start of Chapter 9, Wheatley tells you to jump into a pit. Jump in. You die and respawn immediately. Achievement unlocks on death.
Good Listener	Take GLaDOS's escape advice.	4	28.4%	There is no door labeled ESCAPE. During the escape GLaDOS opens a small room she calls the final test chamber, already solved, reached by a light bridge. Take the left route into it. Entering it kills you, and that is what unlocks the achievement.
Scanned Alone	Stand in a defective turret detector.	5	34.8%	In turret manufacturing, first lift the template turret out of the scanner, then step in yourself. Standing in the beam while the template is still in place does nothing.
Door Prize	Examine all the vitrified test chamber doors.	6	7.3%	Six doors in two groups of three, all in Chapter 6, and you press the intercom beside each one and not just looking. Group one sits across the gap after the lift up the metal rig. Group two is through a hidden metal door behind a cabinet in the Control Room, the same corridor as Ship Overboard.

Moderate (Some Effort)

Achievement	How to Unlock	Chapter	Global Unlock	Tips
Drop Box	Place a cube on a button without touching the cube.	2	29.0%	In the cube dropper chamber, position a portal under the dropper and another portal above the button. The cube drops through the portal and lands on the button. You never touch it.
Preservation of Mass	Break the rules in Test Chamber 07.	2	24.5%	Take the Companion Cube out with you by portalling it past the exit door. The chamber's Emancipation Grill is explicitly broken, which GLaDOS tells you outright, so it is not what you are working around. She fizzles the cube at the elevator anyway.
Pturretdactyl	Use an Aerial Faith Plate to launch a turret.	2 or 3	8.7%	Chapter 2, Test Chamber 06 or Chapter 3, Test Chamber 15. Set a turret on the Faith Plate and watch it fly. Chapter 5's turret manufacturing area has no test chambers and no Faith Plates at all.
No Hard Feelings	Save a turret from redemption.	5	31.1%	There are two redemption conveyors. The turret that counts is the single mostly-intact one on the second belt, identifiable by its still-flashing laser. Picking it up is enough, with no race against the incinerator and nothing to set down.
Ship Overboard	Discover the missing experiment.	6	10.7%	The "missing experiment" is the Borealis's empty drydock, with life preservers on the floor, not a model of the ship. Reach it through a hidden metal door behind a cabinet in the Control Room, then a blasted-open vitrified door. It fires when you reach the gate.

Hard (Dedicated Work)

Achievement	How to Unlock	Chapter	Global Unlock	Tips
Final Transmission	Find the hidden signal in one of the Rat Man dens.	2	5.5%	Use the same portal trick from "Drop Box" to rescue a radio from the garbage disposal. Carry the physical radio into a hidden Rat Man den in the wall to trigger a specific audio signal. The den entrance is easy to miss.
Overclocker	Complete Test Chamber 10 in 70 seconds.	3	4.0%	The timer starts the exact moment you cross the chamber's entry threshold. The chamber involves a laser, a redirection cube, and two buttons. Memorize the solution on a normal run first, then replay from chapter select and execute it flawlessly. Quick-save at the chamber start. Most players need three to five attempts.
Schrodinger's Catch	Catch a blue-painted cube before it hits the ground.	6	6.9%	In Enrichment Sphere 3 the cube sits inside a glass enclosure. Gel it and it bounces off the glass, which does not count, until a pane finally breaks. Grab it before it touches the ground. There is no first-contact rule, and washing the gel off with water to stop the bouncing is a legitimate alternative.
Portrait of a Lady	Find a hidden portrait.	7	11.7%	Enrichment Sphere 04, built in 1972, so the early 1970s complex and not the late ones. The portrait is in Test Chamber 01's observation room, behind a locked gate you get past with portals. There are no breakable wall panels in this game.
You Made Your Point	Refuse to solve the first test in Chapter 8.	8	6.6%	Stand still and do nothing for about 30 seconds. Wheatley gets annoyed, the screen shakes, and the achievement pops. He does not solve the puzzle for you. It has to be your first visit to that chamber, not the repeat visit you make later for Dual Pit Experiment.
Smash TV	Break 11 test chamber monitors.	8	3.7%	The 11 monitors are in Chapter 8 Test Chambers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (which has two), 6, 11, 12, 15 and 16. Progress persists across sessions, so there is no need to do them in one run. A twelfth monitor in Morton's Fork does not count.

warning

Overclocker is the hardest optional single-player achievement to execute, though at 4.0% it is not quite the rarest. Test Chamber 10 uses both cube types, Thermal Discouragement Beams, and Aerial Faith Plates, and the two things you lower are laser-controlled barriers and not buttons. The timer starts the moment you enter the chamber, not when the map loads. Retry through Challenge Mode instead of quick-saving.

note

Smash TV is the rarest single-player achievement at 3.7%, slightly below Overclocker. It spans ten chambers in Chapter 8, and because the game remembers which monitors you have already destroyed, you can pick up stragglers across several sessions.

Co-Op Story Achievements

These unlock by completing each co-op course. Both players earn them simultaneously.

Achievement	How to Unlock	Global Unlock
High Five	Complete the Calibration Course.	58.6%
Team Building	Complete Course 1: Team Building.	49.5%
Confidence Building	Complete Course 2: Mass and Velocity.	40.9%
Bridge Building	Complete Course 3: Hard-Light Surfaces.	32.1%
Obstacle Building	Complete Course 4: Excursion Funnels.	26.4%
You Saved Science	Complete all courses of co-op.	21.2%

Co-Op Optional Achievements

These require specific actions during co-op play. Both players earn the achievement when unlocked unless noted.

Social and Gesture Achievements

Achievement	How to Unlock	Global Unlock	Tips
Gesticul-8	Perform all 8 default gestures of your own volition in co-op.	27.1%	The eight are Small Wave, High Five, Rock Paper Scissors, Laugh, Robot Dance, Team Tease, Team Hug and Trick Fire. They unlock as you progress and are not all available at the start, and Trick Fire does not arrive until Course 4 Chamber 4, so this cannot be finished early.
Rock Portal Scissors	Win three co-op games of rock-paper-scissors in a row.	9.8%	Both players select the gesture at once. Note it only unlocks for whoever initiates the game, so run it twice if you both want it.
Air Show	Perform two aerial gestures before touching the ground in co-op.	33.3%	Launch off a Faith Plate or fling through a portal, then perform two gestures before hitting the ground. You need enough airtime for both gestures to play. Deep pits or long fling arcs give you the most time.
Friends List With Benefits	While playing co-op, hug three different people on your friends list.	4.5%	Perform the hug gesture with three different Steam friends across three separate co-op sessions. You do not need to finish a course with each friend. Just hug and go.
Can't Touch This	Dance in front of a turret blocked by a Hard Light Bridge in co-op.	9.8%	Find a turret blocked by a bridge and gesture from the safe side. Any gesture works, not specifically the dance, and there is no requirement that the turret be actively firing. Course 3 has the best setup.
Empty Gesture	Drop your co-op partner in goo while they are gesturing by removing the bridge under them.	4.6%	Your partner is the one who has to be gesturing. Wait until they start, then move the portal carrying the bridge out from under them. Coordinate it, and swap roles if you both want it.
Asking for Trouble	Taunt GLaDOS in front of a camera in each of the five co-op courses.	8.9%	Find a security camera in each of the five courses and gesture at it. Any gesture works, and it does not have to be done in one session.

Puzzle and Skill Achievements

Achievement	How to Unlock	Global Unlock	Tips
Portal Conservation Society	Complete Chamber 3 in the Hard-Light Surfaces co-op course using only 5 total portal placements.	2.8%	Both players combined can only fire five portals. Plan every portal before firing. This is one of the hardest co-op achievements.
Four Ring Circus	Enter four different portals without touching the ground in co-op.	6.8%	Pass through four portals in one airborne sequence. The usual spots are Course 1 Chamber 1, the Hub, Course 3 Chamber 5, or any reversible Excursion Funnel.
Triple Crown	Solve three co-op chambers in the Mass and Velocity course in under 60 seconds each.	3.0%	All three chambers must be in Course 2. Know the solutions before starting the timer (load into the chamber, memorize the layout, restart, then speedrun).
Narbacular Drop	Place a portal under your co-op partner while they are gesturing.	5.8%	Fire a portal directly under your partner while they perform a gesture. Named after Valve's pre-Portal student project.
Iron Grip	Never lose a cube in Chamber 6 of the Mass and Velocity co-op course.	3.6%	Complete the chamber without letting any cube fall into goo or off an edge. If a cube falls, restart the chamber. Careful coordination is required.
Talent Show	Never lose a cube in Chamber 6 of the Mobility Gels co-op course.	2.6%	Same concept as Iron Grip but in the gel course. Gels make cubes slippery. Handle them carefully. If one slides off, restart. See the bug warning below.
Still Alive	Complete Course 4 with neither you nor your co-op partner dying.	2.4%	Neither player can die at any point during all nine chambers of Course 4. If either player dies, restart the course from Chamber 1. Know every puzzle solution in advance.
Party of Three	Find the hidden Companion Cube in co-op test chamber.	3.5%	Course 4, Chamber 9. Redirect the funnel along the office wall and a section opens, revealing the cube, which then fires out. Do not attempt this on a Still Alive run: getting the cube slams you into a spike wall and kills you, so the two achievements are mutually exclusive in the same attempt.
Professor Portal	After completing co-op, complete the Calibration Course online with a friend who has never played co-op before.	5.9%	Your partner must have absolute zero co-op progress on their Steam account. Complete the Calibration Course together. See the detailed section below.

note

Talent Show and the Sixense MotionPack. One community source reports that the Razer Hydra Sixense MotionPack DLC stops this achievement firing for the player using that DLC, while it still unlocks normally for their partner. Adding -nosixense to the Launch Options is the suggested fix. This is thinly sourced and uncited, and the DLC has been unpurchasable since the Hydra was discontinued, so it will not affect most players. Worth knowing only if you happen to own it.

Professor Portal Workarounds

Professor Portal (5.9% global unlock) is the most frustrating achievement in the game. You need a Steam friend who owns Portal 2 but has never started the co-op campaign. Single-player progress does not disqualify them. You also have to have finished all five courses yourself first, and they must be on your friends list and invited by you, so befriending a stranger partway through the Calibration Course does not count. If the opening film plays for them, they are eligible.

What actually works:

1. Find a new buyer. Wait for a Steam sale, since Portal 2 regularly drops below $2, and get a friend to buy it. Play the Calibration Course together before they touch co-op alone.
2. mp_mark_all_maps_incomplete. This command is real and marks all levels incomplete in the save file, but it is something each player runs on their own save. You cannot apply it to someone else, and reports of it working for this achievement are mixed.

warning

Steam Family Sharing does not work for this, and it is worth being explicit because the suggestion circulates widely. Valve's own Steam Families documentation uses Portal 2 as its example: "If two of you would like to play Portal 2 at the same time, someone else in the family will need to purchase a copy." Co-op needs two simultaneous sessions. Local split-screen is no help either, since Professor Portal is one of only two co-op achievements that must be earned online.

Recommended Achievement Order

First Playthrough (Single-Player)

1. All 14 story achievements trigger automatically as you play through Chapters 1 through 9.
2. Drop Box in Chapter 2. Set up the portalable drop before entering the chamber.
3. Preservation of Mass in Chapter 2. Save the Companion Cube from Test Chamber 07.
4. Final Transmission in Chapter 2. Rescue the radio and carry it to the hidden Rat Man den.
5. Good Listener in Chapter 4. Look for the door labeled "ESCAPE."
6. Scanned Alone and No Hard Feelings in Chapter 5. Both are in the behind-the-scenes area.
7. Pturretdactyl in Chapter 2 (Test Chamber 06) or Chapter 3 (Test Chamber 15). Set a turret on a Faith Plate.
8. Ship Overboard and Door Prize in Chapter 6. Explore Old Aperture for hidden areas.
9. Schrodinger's Catch in Chapter 6. When Repulsion Gel first appears.
10. Portrait of a Lady in Chapter 7. Enrichment Sphere 04, in Test Chamber 01's observation room behind a locked gate.
11. You Made Your Point in Chapter 8. First chamber. Do nothing.
12. Smash TV across Chapter 8. Hit all 11 monitors in Chambers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (which holds two), 6, 11, 12, 15 and 16.
13. Pit Boss at the start of Chapter 9. Jump in.

Chapter Select Cleanup

14. Overclocker in Chapter 3. Replay Test Chamber 10 from chapter select after memorizing the solution.

Co-Op Campaign

15. All six story achievements by completing each course.
16. Gesture achievements (Gesticul-8, Rock Portal Scissors, Air Show) any time during co-op.
17. Asking for Trouble once per course (five total cameras).
18. Puzzle achievements (Portal Conservation Society, Four Ring Circus, Triple Crown) during specific courses.
19. Social achievements (Friends List With Benefits, Can't Touch This, Empty Gesture) throughout co-op play.
20. Still Alive in Course 4. Neither player can die. Know every solution first.
21. Iron Grip in Course 2, Chamber 6. Do not lose any cubes.
22. Talent Show in Course 5, Chamber 6. Launch with -nosixense to avoid the DLC bug.
23. Narbacular Drop and Party of Three any time during co-op.
24. Professor Portal last. You need an actual co-op newcomer, since Family Sharing cannot cover it.

Difficulty Ratings

Difficulty	Achievements	Global Unlock Range
Easy (story)	Wake Up Call, You Monster, Undiscouraged, Bridge Over Troubling Water, SaBOTour, Stalemate Associate, Tater Tote, Vertically Unchallenged, Stranger Than Friction, White Out, Tunnel of Funnel, Dual Pit Experiment, The Part Where He Kills You, Lunacy	34% to 74%
Easy (co-op story)	High Five, Team Building, Confidence Building, Bridge Building, Obstacle Building, You Saved Science	21% to 59%
Easy (optional)	Pit Boss, Good Listener, Scanned Alone, Door Prize, Gesticul-8, Air Show, Rock Portal Scissors	7% to 34%
Moderate	Drop Box, Preservation of Mass, Pturretdactyl, No Hard Feelings, Ship Overboard, You Made Your Point, Narbacular Drop, Can't Touch This, Empty Gesture, Asking for Trouble	4% to 31%
Hard	Final Transmission, Overclocker, Schrodinger's Catch, Portrait of a Lady, Smash TV, Portal Conservation Society, Four Ring Circus, Triple Crown, Iron Grip, Talent Show, Still Alive, Party of Three	2% to 12%
Social	Professor Portal, Friends List With Benefits	4% to 6%

Frequently Asked Questions

How many achievements does Portal 2 have?

51 on Steam. The Xbox 360 version has 50 for 1000 Gamerscore, dropping Talent Show. The PS3 version has 51 trophies in total, made up of 42 bronze, 5 silver, 3 gold and the Platinum, which is counted within that number and not added to it.

Can you miss any achievements in Portal 2?

Nothing is permanently missable through the story. You can replay any chapter from chapter select and every co-op course from the Hub. Two do depend on other people though: Professor Portal needs a partner who has never played co-op, and Friends List With Benefits needs three separate Steam friends.

Where are the Smash TV monitors in Portal 2?

Chapter 8 Test Chambers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 15 and 16, with Chamber 5 holding two of the eleven. The game remembers which ones you have already broken, so you can collect them across several sessions instead of in one run. A twelfth monitor in Morton's Fork does not count.

How do you get the Professor Portal achievement?

Finish all five co-op courses yourself, then play the Calibration Course online with a Steam friend who has never played co-op. Single-player progress on their account is fine. They have to be on your friends list and invited by you beforehand. Steam Family Sharing cannot be used for this, because two people in a family cannot play the same game at once, and local split-screen does not count either since the achievement must be earned online.

What is the rarest single-player achievement in Portal 2?

Smash TV at 3.7 percent, slightly rarer than Overclocker at 4.0 percent. Overclocker is the harder one to execute, since Test Chamber 10 has to be finished in 70 seconds and the timer starts the moment you enter the chamber.

What to Read Next

• Campaign Walkthrough. Chapter locations for each unlock.
• Co-Op Guide. Cooperative achievements and gesture requirements.
• Puzzle Mechanics. Mechanic-based achievement triggers.
• Tips and Tricks. The Overclocker clock, Smash TV tracking, and the Professor Portal rules.

Did you know?

Portal 2 has two radios and only one of them matters

Both sit in Chapter 2. The one that counts ejects from the Vital Apparatus Vent in Test Chamber 06, and carrying it into that chamber's den is what triggers the audio behind the Final Transmission achievement.

All Portal 2 tips and tricks