Crusher

“

Had a bit of a brain wave. There I was, smashing some steel plates together, and I thought, 'yes, it's deadly!' But what's missing? What's missing? And I thought lots of sharp bits welded onto the flat bits. Click to listen — Wheatley

”

A Crusher in Portal 2.

The Crusher was first introduced in Portal 2, and is a derivative of Aperture Science's Panel technology. Crushers are an environmental hazard present in several test environments. If the player makes contact with a Crusher, they will be forced into the nearest hard surface and killed instantly. Crushers appear as large grey panels with a number of steel spikes firmly attached to them.

Crushers become more frequent during the final parts of the game (particularly in Chapter 9: The Part Where He Kills You), and also appear frequently in Co-op mode.

Function

Any object, including the player, will be perforated instantly upon contact with a Crusher. When active, a loud crunching noise is emitted in order to warn the player that they are approaching a Crusher, thereby allowing the player to avoid them.

In Co-op mode, if the player comes in contact with a Crusher while floating in an Excursion Funnel, the damage caused will be periodic until the player moves away or dies.

Trivia

• Crushers were originally intended to appear in Portal, but were removed in the early stages of game development due to the additional complexity they added to test chambers.^{[citation needed]}
• Crushers appear in Portal: The Flash version, a 2D flash game released prior to Portal. Later, they appeared in the Portal: The Flash Version MapPack modification, and were eventually introduced into Portal: Still Alive.
• Crushers originally lacked spikes and were ordinary steel plates before Wheatley modified them, believing that there was something missing. This contradicts the Panels video however, as a spiked crusher is clearly visible in the last part of the video, and Cave Johnson states that they can be purchased from Aperture Science.
• Wheatley states that he has invented the crushers in Chapter 9, but you can clearly see them at the end of Chapter 1, right after you awaken GLaDOS when you are falling into the incinerator.–

See also

• Mechanics