Secret Panel

Secret Panel

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• File Name sp_a1_intro7
• Appearance Courtesy Call
• Native to Challenge Mode Not by default
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• Next Map Wakeup

Overview

The Discovery of Pancake Skip by Krzyhau (Warning: Loud)

Secret Panel has you reunite with Wheatley, sit through a cut-scene, pick him up, jam him into a panel and wait for another cut-scene before being able to finish the level. That's slow, so runners have always been searching for ways to get around this.

Up until 2019, the strategy for Secret Panel was to hop onto the ceiling, and get to Wheatley without going through the Orange Portal, so it wouldn't close behind you. Then you would shoot a portal under Wheatley, and shoot into the room behind the panel to avoid the Secret Panel cutscene. You need Wheatley to trigger the opening of the door, so for the longest time, this was as fast as we could get it. On May 31st, 2019, Krzyhau found what we now call the Pancake Skip.

General Route

The Box you want to jump on for the Secret Panel lineup

Exit the elevator as usual, circle jump out. You can wall strafe or stair hop, just be sure you have the spacing to get under the door. The trigger to open the orange portal is about one hop outside of the door, so after jumping under the door, you will have hit the trigger, and can portal to the side, and wait a second for the portal to open. Jumping through this portal, and strafing to the right should get you up to a small piece of the wall that sticks out next to the broken wall near the orange portal (pictured at the side).

Once you land here, there are a few slightly altered setups for hitting this almost less than a unit wide shot. Firstly, this is the first map where it's necessary to have cl_showpos 1 enabled from your developer console. This is a non-cheat-protected command that is allowed in all categories. Once you enable it, it will stay enabled until you restart your game, so it's nice to put the command in your Autoexec. The command displays your x, y and z position in the level, your velocity, as well as your x and y look angles.

How to Line Up Your Shot with cl_showpos 1

The top three numbers of your cl_showpos display are as follows. X, Y and Z position on the three dimensional map. You want to be on top of the piece of the wall shown to the side, and you want to push up against the wall. From there, setups will have you paying attention to your X coordinate.

The next three are the equivalent for look angle. The third value does not matter, and you won't need it for anything. The first two however, will be important.

Important Note: All setups involve a Y look angle of 0.00. Please note that -0.00 and 0.00 are not the same coordinate, and -0.00 will not work.

Setup One

Roughly where you want to look

The most widely used setup found by Zypeh is to get yourself to an X value of approximately -507.00. As with all setups, make sure your Y look angle is at 0.00, and set your X look angle between 169.22 and 169.26. Once you're setup, tap your left strafe key, to slowly move along the wall to your left, and spam shoot until you see the shot land. It's worth noting that holding down your +attack key (typically LMB) will continue to shoot if held down. This reduces the possibility of you needing to re-adjust your look angle, as any small change will make the shot impossible.

Cheat-sheet Version:

pos: -507.00
ang: 0.00 -169.22-26
Tap A and shoot repeatedly

Original Route Comment by Xinera: "A better method for pancake skip is to locate yourself at around -507 on the x coordinate against the wall. Aim at 0.00 169.22-169.26 0.00 and then tap a and spam shoot until you hit it."

Setup Two

The second setup can be slower if you don't land close to the correct X value, but it should be slightly more consistent. Get your X position somewhere between -501.80 and -502.20, and aim at an X angle of -169.25 (using Y = 0.00 as with all setups). This setup should work 100% of the time if lined up correctly. If not, slide ever so slightly towards whichever X coordinate you're farthest from, and if that fails try to adjust your X look angle slightly (i.e. -169.23 or -169.24).

Cheat-sheet Version:

pos: -501.80
ang: 0.00 -169.25

SAR_HUD_ANGLES Precision

If you happen to be using the more precise sar_hud_angles command as opposed to cl_showpos and its built in angle function, then you can be extra precise with this particular setup by using the larger range of decimals provided. This is helpful if you find you're really inconsistent at landing a good shot quickly, however the extra time spent lining up may slow you down, so be wary. To do this most consistently, your first number in the sar_hud_angles display should ideally read somewhere between 0.003 and 0.004, with the second co-ordinate not mattering all too much, as long as it resides around -169.25

Cheat-sheet Version:

pos: -501.80
ang: 0.003 -169.250

Finishing the Map

Clipbrush for the walls in the transitional room

The rest of the map is just falling through the portal, and bunny hopping through the catwalks to the end.

The only other note is that the small, transitional hallway between the two catwalks has a pretty large invisible wall on either side of the entrance. So be sure when moving around that corner to try and jump as close to the center as you can to avoid losing time.

Challenge Mode Specific

Waffle Shot (Wheatley Skip Skip Skip)

Waffle Shot Tutorial by Zach

The current Challenge Mode World Record route uses a tiny gap in map geometry to shoot a portal through the wall in the corner of the first room to shoot a portal out of bounds and hit a portalable surface above the ending area.

Once the player bhops over to their portal, they replace their blue portal as they pass through it in order to get bumped in bounds in the ending area. This is a PQR. You can also first go through the portal and then ensure that it is placed at the right height to PQR in.

Full Game Specific

Example in a Single Segment run by Can't Even

Being on top of the ending room with Waffle Skip opens up the potential for a wrong warp into the next map Wakeup. In combination with a series of void clips (this is Save Load Abuse), it is possible to entirely skip the Wakeup map in Any%. However, it's currently not possible in Full Game. Once you hit the load trigger for the next map, do not portal out of the room, as you will most likely spawn into the next map in a way that will softlock your game, and keep you from continuing. If this does happen, however, you can run restart_level to get back in bounds.

Full Game Dialogue

There are no dialogue cues or Elevator Cues for this map.