100% Achievement Guide
Portal has 15 Steam achievements: four from story progression, five from gameplay challenges and exploration, and six from the post-game Advanced Maps and Challenge Maps. None of them are missable, because you can replay the campaign and reach every bonus map from the main menu after finishing the story once. A full 100 percent run takes between five and 15 hours depending on how quickly you clear the Gold challenge medals.
Portal has 15 Steam achievements. Four come from story progression, five from gameplay challenges and exploration, and six from the post-game bonus maps (Advanced Maps and Challenge Maps). A complete 100% run takes between five and 15 hours depending on how quickly you clear the Challenge Map Gold medals.
None of the achievements are missable. You can replay the campaign and access all bonus maps from the main menu after completing the story once.
One achievement is platform-locked, and it is not the one people usually name. The radios and Transmission Received exist only on the Steam and Nintendo Switch versions. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases never received the March 2010 ARG update, so they carry 14 of the 15 achievements, including Camera Shy and all the Advanced Chamber and challenge-medal ones. All figures below are from the Steam version.
Story Achievements
These unlock automatically as you play through the campaign. You cannot miss them.
| Achievement | How to Unlock |
|---|---|
| Lab Rat | Pick up the fully powered Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (both portals). Triggers in Chamber 11. |
| Fratricide | Do whatever it takes to survive. Incinerate the Weighted Companion Cube at the end of Chamber 17. |
| Partygoer | Make the correct party escort submission position decision at the end of Chamber 19. (Escape the incinerator instead of riding the platform into the fire.) |
| Heartbreaker | Complete Portal. Triggers after the GLaDOS boss fight and the ending cutscene. |
"Partygoer" sounds like it has multiple outcomes, but there is only one correct decision. If you ride the platform into the fire, you die and respawn. You have to escape to progress, which triggers the achievement automatically.
Gameplay Achievements
These require specific actions during the campaign. All can be completed on any playthrough.
| Achievement | How to Unlock | Global Unlock | Tips |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal Velocity | Fall 30,000 feet. | 9.0% | Set up an infinite fall loop: place one portal on the floor and one directly above it on the ceiling. Jump in and wait about five minutes. You never land, so it is one continuous fall. |
| Long Jump | Jump 300 feet in a single leap. | 14.1% | It has to be one unbroken airborne stretch, but you build the distance up by passing through portals repeatedly during that jump and not by one enormous fling. The turret room in Escape 02 is the most reliable spot. |
| Camera Shy | Detach all 33 security cameras from the walls. | 4.1% | See the detailed section below. The thing that actually ruins runs is skipping or replaying a chamber, not anything to do with GLaDOS talking. |
| Friendly Fire | Knock down a turret with another turret. | 48.5% | Pick up any turret and use it to knock over a standing one. It does not have to be disabled first, and you can topple the target while still holding your turret instead of throwing it. Chamber 16 gives you plenty of material. |
| Transmission Received | Find all 26 hidden radios and carry them to their signal coordinates. | 4.4% | See the detailed section below. This is NOT a simple collectible hunt. Each radio must be moved to a specific location. |
Camera Shy Details
You must detach exactly 33 security cameras. The per-chamber distribution is:
| Test Chamber | Camera Count | Cumulative Total |
|---|---|---|
| Chamber 02 | 3 | 3 |
| Chamber 03 | 3 | 6 |
| Chamber 04 | 2 | 8 |
| Chamber 05 | 3 | 11 |
| Chamber 10 | 1 | 12 |
| Chamber 11 | 1 | 13 |
| Chamber 13 | 3 | 16 |
| Chamber 15 | 5 | 21 |
| Chamber 16 | 5 | 26 |
| Chamber 17 | 2 | 28 |
| Chamber 18 | 2 | 30 |
| Chamber 19 | 3 | 33 |
All 33 must come in one continuous playthrough. The counter does not carry across playthroughs, and it resets if you skip or replay a chamber. This is the real reason people fail the achievement, and it is why you should not try to stack Camera Shy with other objectives that tempt you to jump around the chamber list.
Before you start: delete old local save files and clear Steam Cloud saves for Portal. A stale save carrying a bad counter is the other common cause of a run that never completes.
You may have read that detaching a camera while GLaDOS is talking breaks the achievement counter. It does not. Waiting for her to finish only affects whether you hear her unique reaction voice line, which is cosmetic. It is a nice detail to collect, but it has no bearing on whether the camera counts.
Check your count in the in-game Achievements list, not Steam's. Pause, open Achievements from the menu, and scroll to Camera Shy. Portal keeps a running ##/33 count there. The Steam list only ever shows locked or unlocked, so it cannot tell you whether you are on 20 or on 30 with four chambers already behind you.
Cameras make a faint mechanical whirring sound. If you hear it, look up and around corners. Some cameras are mounted high on walls and easy to miss.
Transmission Received Details
The 26 hidden radios were added on March 1, 2010, as part of the Portal 2 ARG (alternate reality game). This is NOT a simple "find and forget" collectible.
How it actually works:
- Pick up a radio. It plays static.
- Carry it through the chamber. The static gets louder and more distinct as you approach the correct coordinates.
- When you reach the exact target location, the radio's indicator light turns from red to green, and the audio resolves into a clear Morse code or SSTV (Slow Scan Television) signal.
- The achievement tracks how many radios you have successfully delivered to their coordinates (green light confirmed).
Most target spots are reachable on foot. One is genuinely mid-air, the first radio in Chamber 18, and even there you can simply drop the radio through a portal instead of carrying it through yourself. Others sit behind walls or on high ledges.
The 26 radios are spread across:
- Test Chambers 00 through 19: 23 radios. Most chambers hold one, but Chamber 15 has two and Chamber 18 has three. Do not skip Chamber 00, which has a radio in the relaxation vault right at the start.
- The Escape levels: 3 radios, one each in Escape 00, 01 and 02.
The most common failure point is finding all 26 radios but never moving them to their signal coordinates. If the indicator light stays red, the radio does not count. You must carry each radio until the light turns green. A community guide with exact coordinate locations is strongly recommended.
Unlike Camera Shy, radio progress persists across saves, so you can take this at your own pace over several sessions.
The Morse code and SSTV signals were part of a cryptographic puzzle the community solved in March 2010. The images are stranger than their reputation: math formula sheets, blackboards, an 8-ball, a ceramic rooster, a skull fitted with radio tubes. Fragments across eight of them assembled into an MD5 hash of a real phone number leading to a dial-in BBS. If you decode the signals yourself, you are retracing a solved puzzle and not finding something new. See the Lore and ARG History guide for the full story.
Advanced Map Achievements
Complete modified versions of Test Chambers 13 through 18. These unlock from the Bonus Maps menu after finishing the campaign.
| Achievement | Requirement | Global Unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Cupcake | Complete any two advanced maps. | 18.1% |
| Fruitcake | Complete any four advanced maps. | 12.0% |
| Vanilla Crazy Cake | Complete all six advanced maps. | 9.2% |
Advanced maps use the same puzzle concepts as their base versions but with fewer portalable surfaces, more hazards, and tighter geometry. See the Advanced Maps and Challenges guide for detailed strategies.
Start with Chambers 13 and 14 Advanced. They are the most approachable. Chamber 14 Advanced has a known shortcut: a well-placed drop and crouch-jump from the highest piston directly onto the exit elevator platform skips about 80% of the puzzle. Chambers 17 and 18 Advanced are the hardest and should be saved for last.
Challenge Map Achievements
Earn medals across all six challenge chambers (13 through 18) in three categories: Least Portals, Least Steps, and Least Time.
| Achievement | Requirement | Global Unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Science | Earn Bronze medals on all challenge maps (18 total: 6 chambers x 3 categories). | 2.8% |
| Rocket Science | Earn Silver medals on all challenge maps (18 total). | 2.8% |
| Aperture Science | Earn Gold medals on all challenge maps (18 total). | 2.8% |
All three sit at exactly the same rate because Gold cascades down, so almost everyone who earns one earns all three at once.
Higher medal tiers automatically count toward lower tiers. Earning a Gold medal on a challenge also grants the Silver and Bronze for that slot. One perfect run can clear all three tiers at once.
Recommended Medal Order
- Least Portals first. The most cerebral category. Think through each chamber, plan your portal count, and execute carefully. Quick-save after every successful portal placement.
- Least Time second. Faster execution of solutions you already know. This category is forgiving since small mistakes only cost seconds.
- Least Steps last. The most mechanically demanding category. Gold medals need step-and-hop patterns, crouch-jumping for reach, and constant quick-saving. Save this for when you have mastered the chambers.
For full medal thresholds and chamber-specific strategies, see Advanced Maps and Challenges.
Recommended Achievement Order
First Playthrough: Camera Shy Only
Give Camera Shy a run of its own. It is the one achievement that punishes wandering, because skipping or replaying a chamber resets the counter. Clear old saves first, then go straight through and take all 33 cameras in order.
Lab Rat (Chamber 11), Fratricide (Chamber 17), Partygoer (Chamber 19) and Heartbreaker all trigger on their own along the way, so you get four for free.
Second Playthrough: Everything Flexible
- Friendly Fire: knock a standing turret over with another turret in Chamber 16.
- Terminal Velocity: set up an infinite fall loop in any chamber with a portalable floor and ceiling. Wait about five minutes.
- Long Jump: the turret room in Escape 02 is the best spot. Keep passing through portals without landing to build the 300 feet inside a single jump.
- Transmission Received: carry all 26 radios to their signal coordinates. Radio progress persists across saves, so you can spread this out. Use a community guide for exact locations and watch for the red-to-green light.
Post-Game
- Cupcake: beat two advanced maps (start with 13 and 14).
- Fruitcake: beat two more advanced maps.
- Vanilla Crazy Cake: beat the remaining two advanced maps.
- Basic Science: earn all Bronze challenge medals.
- Rocket Science: earn all Silver challenge medals.
- Aperture Science: earn all Gold challenge medals.
Difficulty Ratings
| Difficulty | Achievements | Global Unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Easy (comes naturally) | Lab Rat (80.9%), Fratricide (63.2%), Partygoer (55.4%), Heartbreaker (52.1%) | 52-81% |
| Moderate (some effort) | Friendly Fire (48.5%), Cupcake (18.1%), Long Jump (14.1%) | 14-49% |
| Hard (dedicated work) | Fruitcake (12.0%), Vanilla Crazy Cake (9.2%), Terminal Velocity (9.0%) | 9-12% |
| Very Hard (endgame) | Transmission Received (4.4%), Camera Shy (4.1%), Basic/Rocket/Aperture Science (2.8% each) | 2.8-4.4% |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many achievements does Portal have?
Portal has 15 Steam achievements. Four come from story progression, five from gameplay challenges and exploration, and six from the post-game Advanced Maps and Challenge Maps.
Are any Portal achievements missable?
None of them are missable. You can replay the campaign whenever you want, and every bonus map stays available from the main menu once you finish the story.
Why is Camera Shy not counting my cameras?
Almost always because you skipped or replayed a chamber, which resets the counter, or because a stale save is carrying a bad count. Delete your old local saves and clear Steam Cloud before you start, then take all 33 in one continuous playthrough. Detaching a camera while GLaDOS is talking does not break anything. It only costs you her unique reaction voice line, which is cosmetic.
How do you unlock Transmission Received in Portal?
Finding the 26 hidden radios is not enough on its own. You have to carry each radio to its signal coordinates until the indicator light turns from red to green and the static resolves into a Morse code or SSTV signal. Twenty-three sit in Test Chambers 00 through 19, including one in the opening relaxation vault, with two in Chamber 15 and three in Chamber 18, and the remaining three are in the Escape levels. The achievement does not exist on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
Do Gold challenge medals also count for Silver and Bronze?
Yes. Higher medal tiers automatically count toward the lower ones, so a Gold medal on a challenge also grants the Silver and Bronze for that slot. One perfect run can clear all three tiers at once.
What to Read Next
- Advanced Maps and Challenges. Medal achievements and targets.
- Lore and ARG History. Radio transmission achievement locations.
- Test Chamber Walkthrough. Chamber-specific unlock triggers.
- Tips and Tricks. What resets Camera Shy, and why a found radio still does not count.