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The Orange Box: Portal Hints
Piston Area #2
1 of 18: To get to this area, drop down the broken ramp past piston area #1 and move forward to find yourself in a room with two short pistons hitting a low ceiling.
2 of 18: Notice that the ceiling they're hitting is concrete, and so is the higher-up ceiling that you can see beyond it. (Look up through the narrow gap between the concrete ceiling and the metal ceiling in your room.)
3 of 18: This suggests that you put one portal in each ceiling, then travel through.
4 of 18: Your nearest portal (let's make it the orange one) needs to be in the ceiling directly above one of the two pistons. That's the only way you're going to be able to reach it.
5 of 18: Fire a blue portal up to the higher ceiling, then get on the piston underneath your orange portal and let it push you through.
6 of 18: The problem with this method is that you'll land either on a horizontal piston, or in the area where one is about to push forward.
7 of 18: This is far too dangerous and error-prone, so look carefully around for other places to put your blue portal.
8 of 18: Move around as you look up through the narrow gap between your room's two ceilings.
9 of 18: You should be able to get to where you can see a concrete wall way above your concrete ceiling.
10 of 18: Fire a blue portal at the center of that wall, then ride your orange-portal piston up.
11 of 18: You'll fall through the blue portal and down onto the top of the concrete ceiling that you were under before.
12 of 18: You're not out of this room yet, though. Look up and around for places you can go next.
13 of 18: There's a side area with concrete walls past a fence, but it's useless, so don't bother portaling yourself there.
14 of 18: Instead, you need to portal-fling yourself onto a high-up ledge.
15 of 18: It's a ways above the large horizontal piston that you can see moving back and forth a ways above you.
16 of 18: First, move your blue portal up a bit if it can go any higher on the concrete wall that it's on.
17 of 18: Then make a new orange portal on the floor to fall through.
18 of 18: As usual, if you land on the floor again, make another orange portal where you're standing. You'll eventually make it to the high-up ledge.