Container Ride

Container Ride

• File name sp_a1_intro1
• Appearance Courtesy Call
• Difficulty Easy
• World Record 0:00 by Zypeh
• Least Portals 0 Portals

Overview

Container Ride is the first map in the game, and subsequently, the first map of the Courtesy Call chapter. The map is mostly a long, drawn-out cut-scene designed to teach players basic movement, and introduce the concept of portals in the same way as the first game, but with Aperture Science's new run-down aesthetic to show off.

General Route

Be familiar with the announcers instructions, look up or down when you need to, stand in-front of, and look at the painting when needed, and tap +use on your bed after the music is done playing.

Once you're re-awoken, stand by the door so that Wheatley opens it and starts the next pseudo-cutscene. It's good practice to stand under where he goes into the ceiling, as the height of the ceiling is lower here, and you can jump quicker, for a fast response when Wheatley asks you to talk with him. After saying apple, the map is just waiting until the third slam into the wall. After the third slam, there is a small window where the player is stopped by an invisible wall. Once the wall is gone, circle jump into the room bellow, and wait for the announcer to tell you he is going to open the portal.

Note: It is speedrunning lore that landing a clipboard toss into the toilet from the corner of the room gives good luck. You can find more information here.

Once the portal is opened, circle jump out of the portal, and hop along the outside of the starting room.

Dialogue Skip (Recommended for new players)

If you struggle with faster dialogue option, there's an alternative way explained in a long-form tutorial suited for beginners This method is slower, but saves about 2 seconds over not getting fast dialogue.

After you have placed the cube on the button, move over to the door, and wait until the announcer finishes saying "Emergency" before walking through, and saving time with bet

You should hear

"Please note the incandescent particle field across the exit. This Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill will vaporize any unauthorized equipment that passes through it."

rather than

"If cube- and button-based testing caused this emergency, don't worry. The odds of this happening twice are very slim."

Slightly Faster Dialogue Skip

Once you're through the door, you need to work fast to get the right dialogue sequence. Getting it is important for fast completion of this map and allows you to save around 7 seconds over letting the dialogues to get glitched and walking straight into an elevator.

Jump on the button in the Rounded Floor Button at the center of the room. It's good practice to linger for a moment, as a tick-perfect jump onto the button, will not trigger the room changing. Not hitting this button will result in the door to the elevator room being closed for a moment after placing the Cube on the button, which prevents you from walking through it and thus getting the fast dialogue.

Place the cube onto the button quickly, then hop through the door, and get in-front of the Emancipation Grill. At the end of the dialogue:

"Cube- and button-based testing remains an important tool for science, even in a dire emergency."

after "emergency" go through the Emancipation Grill. You will know this has worked correctly if the announcer says this dialogue line:

"You have just passed through an Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill, which vaporizes most Aperture Science equipment that touches it."

Challenge Mode Specific

Because the map is basic and short gameplay-wise, every small optimization matters.

Container Pre-Hop

You can also save a decent chunk of time by pre-hopping before the game lets you leave the container, to land in the starting chamber as quickly as possible.

Due to the design of the starting cutscene, the player isn't actually standing in the container that is being moved. Instead the player is physically standing in a stationary second container that is fully sealed while your camera is placed in the moving open container. This is important to understanding how the pre-hop works. Assuming you don't miss any inputs in the start of the chamber when completing the tutorial, the container will end its ride at roughly 4:52.96 at which point the players physical model is teleport from the sealed container to the open container. This teleport can been seen when slowing down demos to 2-4% normal speed.

The goal after this teleportation, is to startup a series of hops in such a way that you approach the open wall, as you are teleported into the correct container so that you carry your momentum right through the wall as soon as possible allowing you to hit the glass faster.

Note: Doing this too quickly can soft-lock the game, Wheatley's dialogue will stop the announcer's and you will soft-lock.

You should know if your pre-hop was successful if Wheatley and the announcer talk at the same time, and Wheatley is eventually cut off.

Elevator Trigger

This trigger will activate the elevator. It's located right before the fizzler that you need to stop in-front of for the fast dialogue skip, so hitting this trigger, but not the fizzler quickly will save time by bringing down the elevator quicker.

Elevator Pre-Hop

Jumping into the elevator at the end of the level is a common trick used in non-official challenge mode maps so that the elevator starts its movement down slightly faster. When the hitbox of the elevator disappears and you are able to hop through changes map by map, so making a save to test the timing is recommended.

Full Game Run Specific

Not so much here differs from general route. Consider doing faster version of fast dialogue only if you're confident with doing it.

Trivia

• Wheatley asks twice to jump, but you only need to do it the first time. After listening through some extra dialogue, the cutscene continues.
• When Wheatley waits for your answer, the game expect a +jump input, but not an actual jump, meaning that we can progress the cutscene without jumping (by, for instance, pressing the jump button while falling from the bed).
• The reason for fast dialogue being a thing is an oversight in the game's script. There are two dialogues about fizzlers, both of which activates early Elevator Fade. If the player happens to leave the test chamber while a dialogue about cube- and button-based testing is playing, the game tries to play one of fizzler dialogues right after it. However, it does that by separate script function and not by Dialogue Queue. Because of that, a ding sound, which counts as separate dialogue, is forcefully played a short while (0.1 seconds) later, interrupting the fizzler dialogue and preventing the early Elevator Fade to happen. It is possible to avoid it by waiting for both cube- and button-based testing dialogues to end and then leaving the chamber, or interrupting the Dialogue Queue in a short break between these dialogues (0.5 seconds) with one of fizzler dialogues.