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Co-Op Guide

By ScotUpdated

Tactical Quick Answer

Portal 2's cooperative campaign is a separate set of puzzles built for two players controlling Atlas and P-body, two Aperture Science testing robots. Each player carries a full dual-portal gun, so four portals are live at once and nothing in co-op can be solved alone. Valve sent any level back to the designers the moment a playtester finished it with a single pair of portals. The campaign covers a Calibration Course plus five numbered courses, with the free Art Therapy DLC adding nine harder chambers on top.

Portal 2's cooperative campaign is a separate set of puzzles designed for two players. You control Atlas (the short blue robot) and P-body (the tall orange robot), two Aperture Science testing robots. Each player has a full dual-portal gun, which puts four portals in play at the same time. The puzzles are built around this. Nothing in co-op is solvable alone.

GLaDOS oversees the co-op tests. She is more openly hostile than in single-player, pitting Atlas and P-body against each other with passive-aggressive commentary. Every death is met with a snide remark. Every success is met with faint disappointment.

warning

The co-op campaign spoils the single-player ending. Finish the single-player campaign first.

How Co-Op Works​

Controls​

Each player has an independent portal gun. Player 1 fires blue and purple portals. Player 2 fires orange and red portals. All four portals can be active at the same time, and any player can walk through any portal.

Communication Tools​

Co-op puzzles require constant coordination. The game gives you tools to communicate without voice chat, though voice chat makes everything easier.

ToolHow to UseWhat It Does
Ping Tool (default F)Point and press.Drops an icon at that spot on both players' screens. The tool is contextual, offering Look, Go Here and Timer pings depending on what you are aiming at, so these are all the same key and not separate buttons.
Timer Ping (default F)Aim and choose the timer ping.Gives both players a synchronized 3-2-1 countdown. Use it for "jump on 1" or "press the button on 1."
Gestures (default Q)Select from the gesture wheel.A separate menu from the ping tool. Eight gestures come with the game and eight more are purchasable from the Robot Enrichment store, for 16 total.

The eight non-purchasable gestures are Small Wave, High Five, Rock Paper Scissors, Laugh, Robot Dance, Team Tease, Team Hug and Trick Fire.

warning

Only Small Wave is available when you start. The other seven unlock as you work through the courses, so do not go hunting for the full wheel in the Calibration Course. This matters for the Gesticul-8 achievement, which cannot be finished early.

tip

If your partner has no microphone, ping every surface before placing portals. Point at where you want their portals, then at where yours will go. The ping tool is precise enough to set up complex solutions without a single word.

warning

The co-op campaign is playable from the moment you install the game. Nothing gates it behind the single-player story, which is exactly why the spoiler warning above matters: co-op is set after Chell escapes, so it gives away both that she gets out and where GLaDOS ends up.

The Hub​

Between courses, you return to a central Hub. GLaDOS deploys the entrance to each new course into it as you progress, using faith plates, bridges and moving panels instead of literal doors.

note

The Calibration Course is not reachable from the Hub. If you want to replay it, go through the pause menu.

Calibration Course​

One map, and not the shared-room tutorial many players expect. The two bots spend it separated by glass in seven pairs of mirrored rooms, passing cubes through windows and standing on buttons for each other. That separation is the lesson: you cannot do anything alone, and you have to communicate to get anything done. It takes about five minutes.

Course 1: Team Building​

6 chambers. Focuses on foundational cooperation: cubes, buttons, portals, and timing.

What You Learn​

  • Coordinated button pressing. One player holds a button while the other passes through the opened door. Then switch.
  • Portal sharing. Player 1 places portals to create a path that Player 2 walks through. Then Player 2 places portals for Player 1.
  • Cube relay. Pass cubes between players using portal chains. One player portals the cube to an elevated area, and the other catches it and places it on a button.

Tricky Chambers​

  • Chamber 4, Rat Maze. A maze of corridors with buttons and doors. One player watches from above and directs the other through using pings. Without clear directions you loop through the same corridors.
  • Chamber 6, Behind the Scenes. The course finale takes you out of the test chambers. You retrieve a CD and operate two Circuit Breakers at the same time.

Course 2: Mass and Velocity​

8 chambers. Built around momentum, flinging, and Faith Plates. The hardest chambers in this course require synchronized flings.

What You Learn​

  • Dual flinging. Both players fling at the same time to land on separate platforms that each have a button. Both buttons must be pressed simultaneously.
  • Faith Plate coordination. One player launches off a Faith Plate while the other places a portal at the landing zone. Timing matters: the portal must be placed before the flying player lands.
  • Cube flinging. Launch cubes using portals and Faith Plates. One player flings the cube, the other catches it mid-air or positions portals to redirect it.

Tricky Chambers​

  • Chamber 6, Multifling. A multi-stage fling where both players launch from different pits at the same time, cross paths in the air, and land on opposite platforms. Use the timer ping and jump on zero.
  • Chamber 8, Industrial Fan. There is no air current here and nothing gets blown around. A giant fan's blades are a physical barrier. You catch a Discouragement Redirection Cube in mid-air and route the laser through four portals into a receptacle, which switches the fan off.

Course 3: Hard-Light Surfaces​

8 chambers. All puzzles use Hard Light Bridges. Players build walkways, shields, and platforms for each other.

What You Learn​

  • Bridge building for your partner. Player 1 redirects a bridge through portals to create a walkway. Player 2 walks across it. Then Player 2 builds a bridge for Player 1.
  • Bridge as a floor. Place portals to extend a bridge over goo or pits. Stand on it together, then reposition portals to move the bridge (and both players) to a new location.
  • Bridge as a shield. One player holds a bridge between the other player and a turret. The shielded player advances and disables the turret.

Tricky Chambers​

  • Chamber 6, Turret Walls. Turrets behind every corner. One player manages bridge shields while the other flanks and tips turrets. Constant communication.
  • Chamber 8, Bridge Testing. The course finale. Both players build alternating bridges to climb, and if either moves a portal at the wrong moment the other falls.

Course 4: Excursion Funnels​

9 chambers. The longest course. Focuses on funnels, polarity reversal, and funnel-portal combos.

What You Learn​

  • Funnel riding. Float through funnels redirected by portals. One player controls the funnel's path while the other rides it.
  • Polarity coordination. One player presses the reversal button while the other is mid-funnel. The funnel reverses, carrying the floating player to a new location.
  • Object transport via funnel. Place cubes in funnels and redirect the funnel through portals to deliver the cube to a distant button.

Tricky Chambers​

  • Chambers 5 and 7, Cooperative Polarity and Advanced Polarity. The polarity pair, building from simple reversals to tight timing on multiple funnels.
  • Chamber 6, Funnel Hop. Not a polarity puzzle despite sitting between the two. This one is about an Emancipation Grill wiping the portals a funnel is running through, which is exactly the situation that drops a partner mid-ride.
  • Chamber 9, Turret Warehouse. The course finale, set in Turret Manufacturing. Multiple funnels, portals and platforms, with both players riding separate funnels and converging on the exit.

Course 5: Mobility Gels​

8 chambers. Introduces gels in a cooperative context.

What You Learn​

  • Gel redirection. Redirect gel through portals to coat surfaces your partner needs. One player manages the gel flow while the other positions for the next jump or fling.
  • Combination puzzles. Chambers mix gels with every other mechanic: lasers, funnels, bridges, and Faith Plates. These are some of the most complex puzzles in the entire co-op campaign.

Tricky Chambers​

  • Chamber 3, Bridge Repulsion. The gel-and-bridge combination puzzle, which requires both players to manage gel, portals, bridges and timing at once. Multiple steps must happen in order and the order is not obvious. Talk it through before executing.
  • Chamber 6, Turret Ninja. Gels plus turrets.
  • Chamber 8, Vault Entrance. The course finale, and the end of the base campaign. It closes with each bot performing a gesture at the vault camera and not a conventional exit.

Art Therapy (DLC Course)​

9 chambers. Released as part of the free Peer Review DLC. Accessible through a new door in the Hub. These chambers are harder than the base game courses and assume mastery of all mechanics.

Peer Review was Portal 2's first DLC and released free on October 4, 2011.

What to Expect​

  • Every test element appears across the nine chambers: lasers, cubes, funnels, bridges, gels, turrets, and Faith Plates.
  • The puzzle designs are tighter and less forgiving than the base courses. Fewer spare cubes, smaller margins on timing, and more steps per solution.
  • The story is not a continuation of the base campaign's disc-collecting. Somebody is overriding GLaDOS's control of the facility through an old prototype central core chassis, and she spends the course increasingly unsettled about it while framing the wreckage as an art exhibit. The intruder turns out to be a bird nesting on the chassis keyboard.
  • No achievements are attached to Art Therapy at all, so there is nothing to chase here.
note

Co-op progress is tracked per player, and a chamber opens when at least one of you has unlocked it. If your partner has finished the campaign, you can go straight into Art Therapy without grinding the five base courses yourself.

Co-Op Tips​

  1. Talk constantly. Silent co-op is frustrating co-op. Call out what you are doing, what you need your partner to do, and when you are about to move a portal.
  2. Use the ping tool for everything. Ping where you want portals. Ping where you want your partner to stand. Ping the cube. Ping the button. Ping the exit.
  3. Do not move your partner's platforms. If your partner is standing on a bridge or floating in a funnel that passes through your portals, tell them before you move anything. Moving a portal while your partner is mid-air kills them.
  4. Let the weaker player lead. If one player is experienced and the other is not, the experienced player should let the newcomer try to solve puzzles first. Solving a co-op puzzle for someone else is the fastest way to make the game boring for them.
  5. Use the timer ping for synchronized actions. Jumping, pressing buttons, and entering portals together is required in many chambers, and the built-in countdown beats voice counting. It lives on the ping key (F), not on the gesture wheel (Q).
  6. Both players need to reach the exit. A chamber ends when both bots walk into the chamberlock, the elevator room behind the Emancipation Grill. There is no pair of exit buttons to stand on. The exceptions are the course finales, which end by inserting a disc into the CD player, and Course 5 Chamber 8, which ends when each of you performs a gesture at the vault camera.

Frequently Asked Questions​

How many co-op courses are in Portal 2?

Five official courses, with the Calibration Course sitting outside the numbering as Course 0 and Art Therapy added later as a free extra and not one of the five. Team Building has 6 chambers, Mass and Velocity has 8, Hard-Light Surfaces has 8, Excursion Funnels has 9, and Mobility Gels has 8. Art Therapy adds another 9, for 48 in total.

Can you play Portal 2 co-op without voice chat?

Yes. Everything runs off the ping tool on the F key, which is contextual: it offers Look pings, Go Here pings, and a Timer ping that gives both players a synchronized 3-2-1. Gestures are a separate menu on Q. Ping every surface before placing portals and you can set up complex solutions without saying a word.

Do I have to finish the single-player campaign before co-op?

The game does not stop you, and co-op has been playable since launch. You should anyway, because co-op is set after Chell escapes and therefore gives away both that she gets out and where GLaDOS ends up.

How many gestures are there in Portal 2 co-op?

Sixteen. Eight come with the game and eight more are bought from the Robot Enrichment store. The eight included are Small Wave, High Five, Rock Paper Scissors, Laugh, Robot Dance, Team Tease, Team Hug, and Trick Fire, but only Small Wave is available at the start. The rest unlock as you work through the courses.

Do I need to finish all five courses before playing Art Therapy?

Not necessarily. Progress is per player and a chamber opens when at least one of you has unlocked it, so if your partner has finished the campaign you can go straight in.