Crusher

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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.
Wheatley
A Crusher in Portal 2.

The Crusher is 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 a test subject 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 the chapter The Part Where He Kills You), and also appear frequently in Cooperative Testing Initiative.

Origin

The crusher first appeared in the Portal game trailer trailer, but it was not added to the final game. It was added in the Portal: Still Alive expansion pack as a game mechanic and then reappeared in Portal 2. It's use in Portal: Still Alive was not wide and it was used in only a handful of levels.

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 Valve added to test chambers.[citation needed]
  • Wheatley refers to crushers as "mashy spike plates" and "mashers".
  • You can add crushers into a PeTI chamber if BEEMOD is installed.

Gallery