Cubes

“

If you think trapping yourself is going to make me stop testing, you're sorely mistaken; here's another cube.

— GLaDOS

”

Cubes are common testing elements throughout the Portal series. They are commonly used to press Buttons, disable Turrets, or redirect Lasers.

Cubes

Weighted Storage Cube

The Weighted Storage Cube was first introduced in Portal, and remains prevalent in Portal 2. In Portal 2 however, the cube is given a blue ring in the center instead of a blue cross, and can turn yellow when placed upon a Super Button.

Weighted Companion Cube

Main article: Weighted Companion Cube

The Weighted Companion Cube was first introduced in Portal, and remains prevalent in Portal 2. Similar to the Weighted Storage Cube, the Companion Cube possesses a different design in Portal 2. The Cube functions in the same way as a Weighted Storage Cube, being differentiated to encourage test subjects to feel attached to the Cube. A feature to the new Companion Cube in Portal 2 is that it is able to sing.

Edgeless Safety Cube

The Edgeless Safety Cube was officially introduced in Portal 2, where it is used only in the co-op campaign. However, it also appears once in the single-player campaign as garbage. The entire name is given out of irony, however it still retains the coloring scheme and patterns present in the designs of the other cubes.

The Edgeless Safety Cube did have an appearance in a Portal Challenge Map and a Portal: Still Alive Map, however it did not have a notable name and also did not have an accompanying receptacle, thus is not widely considered to have its first appearance until Portal 2.

This Item appears in Chapter 2 chamber 6, while GLaDOS is cleaning out the cube dispenser, where 2 of them fall out amongst other garbage.

Discouragement Redirection Cube

Main article: Discouragement Redirection Cube

The Discouragement Redirection Cube was introduced in Portal 2. Its main purpose is to redirect the Thermal Discouragement Beam to other places or through portals if necessary. However, the cube has a second use as a Weighted Storage Cube, as it can be used to activate the Heavy-Duty Super Button.

Frankenturret

Main article: Frankenturret

Frankenturrets are Sentry Turret and Weighted Storage Cube hybrids created by Wheatley in order to complete test chambers when he had no test subjects. They are present in the single-player chapters, The Itch and The Part Where He Kills You.

Frankenturrets do not speak, and instead emits incomprehensible chirping sounds. They act as Wheatley's replacement for Storage Cubes, but their behavior is different. Frankenturrets will hop around aimlessly while not placed on a button. When picked up by Chell or put on a button, they retract their legs inside their cubes. If they fall over on their sides or upside down, they will wave their legs trying to get up.

In the Pre-1 chamber of chapter 8, Potato-GLaDOS will attempt to stun Wheatley with a paradox that he fails to understand. It can be noted that when Potato-GLaDOS speaks the paradox, all of the Frankenturrets in the room will fold up their legs, twitch violently, emit electrical sparks and have their pupils rapidly change size, which indicates they are, at least, partially capable of understanding words.

Scalable Cube

The Scalable Cube is exclusively featured in the Portal 2 Sixense DLC Test Chambers. The only way to scale the Cube is with the Razer Hydra Controllers, a feature supported by the Portal Gun in the DLC. The size of the Cube changes simultaneously with its mass. The Scalable Cube can be used to build bridges between gaps or to crush Turrets.

Contraption Cube

The Contraption Cube is exclusively featured in the Portal 2 - Educational Version Puzzle Creator. It has adjustable mass, friction and elasticity. The minimum mass is 1kg, maximum mass is 85kg. There are 5 levels for friction: frictionless, slippery, normal, sticky and very sticky. There are also 5 levels for elasticity: no rebound, slight rebound, normal, bouncy, very bouncy. The default settings for the Contraption Cube are 40kg, frictionless, and no rebound. Different settings cause the cube to take on slightly different appearances. It has its own button, the Contraption Cube Receptacle.

Schrödinger cubes

The Schrödinger cubes are featured in the Portal 2: Community Edition and Portal: Revolution. These cubes behave like Discouragement Redirection Cubes. When a laser enters either cube, it always exits from the other cube. It doesn't matter which cube the laser enters; it will always come out from the opposite one.

Skull Cube

The skull cube is an alternate design for the regular Weighted Storage Cube in which the Aperture logo is replaced by a crudely drawn skull. It is present in the game files of Portal: Still Alive, but does not appear in-game. Due to a similar design existing for pedestal buttons that are connected to cube droppers, is is widely believed that said cube droppers would have originally dispensed skull cubes, but that this was cut due to players being confused into thinking the cubes had a unique function.

The unofficial PC port of Still Alive reimplements the skull cubes, but they are not used in any official version of the game.

Cubes Outside of the Portal Series

Dota 2 Cube

The Dota 2 Cube is a Portal inspired cube appearing in the art for the Dota 2 "Portal" hud skin.

Puzzle Creator item properties

Entity Cost: 4 (no dropper), 17 (with dropper) Dropperless entity cost taken from Valve Developer Community. Entity cost with dropper taken from BEE2 as VDC did not have it. This may not be accurate as BEE2 modifies cube droppers, which may change the ent count.
Connections: This item supports inputs, which drop the cube when activated and fizzle the previous cube (therefore this is only present when the dropper is enabled). Connect to... is used to connect this item to another, via inputs or outputs. Connection visibility controls the visibility of this connection, and Remove connections is used to remove existing connections.
Cube Type: Allows switching between Weighted, Companion, Reflection, Sphere and Franken cubes. The education edition also allows switching to the Contraption Cube.
Dropper Enabled: This checkbox controls whether the cube has a dropper or not. If unchecked, the cube will be dropperless.
Auto-drop First Cube: This checkbox controls whether the dropper would automatically drop the first cube upon entering the map. If unchecked, it will not drop the first cube, requiring you to activate it's input via a Pedestal Button.
Auto-respawn cube: This checkbox controls whether the dropper will respawn the cube. If unchecked, the cube will not automatically respawn, requiring you to activate its input via a Pedestal Button.