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Hello friend.
— Sentry Turret
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Turrets serve as one of the main testing obstacles in the Portal series. Armed with almost unlimited ammunition and deadly accuracy, they will attempt to kill test subjects on sight.
Turrets are voiced by Ellen McLain.
General
Sentry Turret
Sentry Turrets are miniature tripod robots that appear in every game in the Portal series. They are seen as incapable of independent movement, but can open each side of their chassis (their 'arms') horizontally in order to reveal twin double-barreled machine guns. The central part of the chassis holds their red eye, which emits a targeting laser. Almost all of the space within the Turret is devoted to storing the ridiculously stacked ammo, explaining the nearly infinite supply of ammo when firing. According to the Portal 2 Turrets trailer, the turrets use spring mechanisms to accelerate the whole bullet, including the casing, which may explain how the player can survive getting shot by the Turret so many times.
When test subjects are out of sight from the Turret's presence, they will maintain a standby state and will remain motionless with their guns retracted. Moving into their angle of sight however, will cause Turrets to deploy their guns shortly after greeting the unlucky individual before opening fire. They will continue to fire until the target is dead or moves out of sight. If the latter occurs, Turrets will briefly search for the test subject (as indicated by the movement of the targeting laser), after which they will revert to a standby state.
Turrets can be avoided, disabled or destroyed in a number of ways. The most common method is knocking them over, causing them to flail and fire wildly before deactivating. This can be done by picking them up and dropping them, or using any object to tip them over. Additionally, the Discouragement Beams or Emancipation Grills can be used to completely destroy them. They also emit a long "ooowowowowow" noise if thrown into a fizzler grill.
In Portal, Turrets will shoot the bulletproof glass when the player is on the other side. In Portal 2, however, Turrets will only follow the player behind glass.
Rocket Turret
The Rocket Turret is a unique enemy seen at the end of Portal. It appears as a raw personality core outfitted with a rocket launcher. Upon activation, it will slowly lock onto Chell and emit a sound before firing a rocket. Unlike Sentry turrets, it cannot be disabled or destroyed by the player. It plays a vital role in the battle with GLaDOS, as rockets need to be sent through portals in order to hit her, causing personality cores to detach from her.
Rockets can also be redirected by Chell to shatter the observation windows throughout the offices of the Enrichment Center.
Rocket Turrets used to play a major role in Portal 2[citation needed], but were later cut.
Defective Turret
Defective Turrets, referred to as "Crap Turrets" by Wheatley, are incomplete, sometimes ammo-less versions of the Sentry Turrets introduced in Portal 2. Unlike normal Sentry Turrets, Defective Turrets have a more humorous and sarcastic dialogue, and speak in a masculine, less robotic voice with a Texas-like accent.
They are harmless to Chell, many times making comments such as "If anyone asks, I killed you". Their voice lines seem to imply they are blind, but they are still aware of Chell's presence. They are first encountered in chapter 5, The Escape.
In the game's co-op campaign, the Defective Turrets appear as obstacles for Atlas and P-body throughout the Mobility Gels testing course. These Turrets appear to be as fully functional as regular Sentry Turrets and possesses the innocent and feminine voice tones as they should. The only difference from regular Turrets is that they have been defaced. One Defective Turret in the final test chamber of this test course has been evidently reconfigured by someone, as instead of serving as a typical testing obstacle, before dying it reveals that it "needs to protect the humans".
Frankenturret
Frankenturrets are bizarre Sentry Turret-Weighted Storage Cube hybrids in the single-player campaign of Portal 2. Created by Wheatley in order to complete test chambers when he had no available test subjects, they are first introduced in the chapter, The Itch.
Frankenturrets do not speak, and instead emit incomprehensible chirping sounds. They generally serve as Wheatley's replacement for Storage Cubes once Chell is available as his test subject. Their only difference from normal cubes being that Frankenturrets will hop around aimlessly when not placed on a button. When picked up by Chell, they retract their legs inside the cube. If they fall over on their sides or upside down, they will wave their legs trying to get up.
Prima Donna Turret
The Prima Donna Turret (meaning First Woman in Italian, a title given to the lead singer, the diva, in an opera), referred by the game files as the Turret Wife, is a bigger and wider Turret featured at the end of Portal 2's single-player campaign during the Turret Opera, after GLaDOS finally allows Chell her freedom of leaving the Enrichment Center. As its name implies, the Prima Donna Turret provides the lead vocals for the Turret Opera.
Apart from the ending, a Prima Donna Turret can also be found in the chapter The Return, at the end of Test Chamber 11; briefly seen in an elevator just as Chell enters the Chamberlock. It can also be found below the Rattmann's den in the same chapter during Test Chamber 16, where it is observing a turret quartet.
- throughout portal 2, broken prima donna turrets can be found.
Animal King Turret
The Animal King Turret is a unique type of turret in the single-player campaign of Portal 2 that is only used in an Aperture Science slideshow to represent an "Animal King Takeover" in the chapter, The Courtesy Call. The Turret is considerably colossal in comparison to its Sentry Turret brethren, and appears to operate the 'arms' on its side in exactly the same way.
It can be distinguished from ordinary Turrets by its immense size, crown and leopard skin-detailed chassis. In the context of the slideshow, the Animal King Turret is used as an example of an entity or a form of organism capable of taking control of Earth which "...refuses to, or is incapable of listening to reason".
The Animal King Turret appears only once in the entire game, during the single-player ending sequence when Chell is being brought up to the surface by GLaDOS after defeating Wheatley. It appears to be producing the lower bass tones of the Turret Opera.
Hover Turret
The Hover Turret is an unused Turret found within the game files of Portal 2. It uses the model of the Curiosity Core. It emits a laser, similar to the other types of Turrets, that is coloured light-blue and able to burn the player similar to the burn of the Thermal Discouragement Beam, however unlike the Thermal Discouragement Beam it's laser does not provide a barrier for the player's movement, nor does it interact with game mechanics. The Hover Turret can be spawned within Portal 2 via the cheat command ent_create npc_hover_turret. It can also be found in Chapter 8 Test Chamber 1 in Portal 2 by using the noclip command and going throught the wall behind the Level Screen (it should say 1/19) and looking to the left. If you go near it it will make a blue effect and if you have subtitles enabled they will move to the left.
Appearances
Portal
Turrets are introduced as testing hazards to Chell during the entirety of Test Chamber 16. Following this, they continue to appear throughout the remaining test chambers and eventually, during Chell's escape.
Portal: Still Alive
Portal 2
Turrets reprise their role as testing hazards to Chell and to Atlas and P-body for the game's co-op campaign, and they appear fairly early in the game. Distinct versions of the Turrets are introduced, including the Defective Turrets and Animal King Turret.
Gallery
| Turrets |
| Sentry Turret as it appears in Portal.
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| Sentry Turret as it appears in Portal 2.
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| Defective Turret from Portal 2.
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| Prima Donna Turret from Portal 2.
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| Rocket Turret from Portal.
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| The Frankenturret from Portal 2. |
| "Animal King Takeover" slideshow with the Animal King Turret used as an example in Portal 2.
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| Very high-resolution portion of the Animal King Takeover slide
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| Another type of Defective Turret in Portal 2.
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| A Turret sitting on a chair in the co-op testing course, Art Therapy.
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| Developer Screenshot of the movie sequence
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| The Three Turret Moon shirt.
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Videos
The Turrets and Animal King Turret as they appear in Chamberlock informational videos.
Trivia
- When GLaDOS attempts to kill Wheatley with a paradox in the beginning of Chapter 8: The Itch, every Frankenturret is fried, humorously implying that they are smarter than Wheatley.
- The shipping box for the Turrets states that one of the blue painted Turrets was bought on January 25, 2010 by a person with an unreadable name. The reference to Michael Jackson can be seen on the box.[citation needed]
- The Rocket Core from Portal was originally intended to fire lasers instead of rockets, but playtesters thought that a rocket would be more dramatic than a laser slowly melting the glass.
Related achievements
Portal
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Friendly Fire
Knock down a turret with another turret.
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Portal: Still Alive
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A Feeling Like Floating
Dissolve a turret.
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Is Anyone There?
Complete the game without ever taking a bullet.
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Saw That One Coming
Cause a rocket sentry to destroy its own rocket when the rocket has been redirected back towards it.
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The Camera Adds 10 Pounds
Knock a turret over with a security camera.
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Portal 2
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No Hard Feelings
Save a turret from redemption
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Pturretdactyl
Use an Aerial Faith Plate to launch a turret
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Scanned Alone
Stand in a defective turret detector
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Can't Touch This
Dance in front of a turret blocked by a hard light bridge in co-op
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See also
