Cube Momentum
- File name sp_a1_intro5
- Appearance Courtesy Call
- Native to Challenge Mode Yes
- World record: loading...
- Least portals: loading...
Contents
Overview
Cube Momentum is easily the most complicated map up to this point in the game for most new players. Speedruns for this map, however, are fairly straight forward, and much easier than doing the map intended so long as you understand the concepts.
General Route
After you circle jump out of the elevator, wall strafe up near the door, and stop with a small distance between you and the door. Similar to Smooth Jazz, hopping under the door will be optimal for this map. The reasoning for this hop pattern is different in this map, as the trigger to open the orange portal for you is farther ahead, once the floor transitions into a more uniform surface. A good circle jump under the door give you extra speed, and allows you to open that orange portal sooner.
Your goal is to fall through your portal on the ground, and air strafe left, to where the button is. The fastest way to fall through the portal, is if you crouch while falling through. The world record does not use this method, as it's a relatively new development. As you move to the right, your goal is to turn around, press the button, and turn back around in time to continue walking towards the wall.
Once you reach the wall, you want to shoot your blue portal in front of you, and Portal Stand with a portal near the floor button on your left. A quick overview/tutorial of the portal stand in Cube Momentum is that you want to be standing in a portal, shoot a new portal to the left wall, then push backwards into the orange portal you came out of to avoid being pushed out by the portal. If you're having trouble, hugging the orange portal too tight will result in your being pushed out more often than not, you want to be relatively far out of the orange portal, just without falling.
Shooting the portal to the left wall, near the floor button. The farther away your portal is from the corner of the wall, the faster you can reach the door at the end, but the harder it is to aim the follow up shot underneath the cube following from the dropper to your right. Zypeh, in his world record, shoots more than a panel away from the corner. But newer runners are encouraged to shoot closer to the corner if they are struggling with the follow up shot.
Once you've pushed back through the orange portal, and come out near the button, aim over to the dropper on the right, and shoot under the cube. There is a faster, and a less risky version recommended for single segment. These will be discussed in the Challenge Mode/Single Segment Specific sections. But the general method of getting the Single Portal Cube Grab is to shoot under the cube, wait for a fraction of a second, then replace the portal in front of you, and grab the cube that was coming out of the orange portal when you re-shot.
Once you have the cube, hold your backwards key, and look towards the button. We hold the backwards key, as there is a delay between picking up, and being able to drop a cube. Roughly around the time you're past the floor button, you should be able to drop the cube onto the button, and hop through the door.
Challenge Mode Specific
World Record run for Cube Momentum by Zypeh
In challenge mode, the main optimizations are to try to strafe as far to the right as possible leaving the first portal, and hit the button with a (larger than will initially feel comfortable) turn to the right.
During your portal stand, you want to shoot farther to the left, so that you come out closer to the door. This makes shooting under the cube more challenging, but the muscle memory for the line-up comes with practice.
Faster Cube Grab
The fastest way to get the cube in Cube Momentum, is to:
- Make sure that you finish your portal stand quickly. Your timer on this strategy begins once you hit the button, so you'll have to be quick.
- Shoot the portal for the cube while the cube is still falling.
- Replace the portal, and hit your '+use' key as soon as possible.
If done correctly, the cube should come through the portal, towards you, as opposed to falling outside the portal, as it does in the slower, more consistent strategy, where you'll need to stand by your portal to grab it. With this strategy, you should be able to start moving backwards almost as soon as you finish your portal stand.
Single Segment Specific
Safer Cube Grab
This method is certainly safer, but it doesn't lose a massive amount of time. There is really no need to ever try the faster strategy in a Single Segment environment. And even in Challenge Mode, this method should still get you a time on the leader board if done quickly.
Here's the how to:
- After you come out of the portal stand, look at where the cube is on the floor under the dropper.
- Shoot the portal for the cube, and quickly look at the wall in front of you, and re-shoot. You want to stay near where you're going to shoot the second portal, as the cube could be farther out than you expect.
You want to practice this for a while, get a good feel for the timing, and work getting a good feel for the map's timings. This map is almost entirely muscle memory.
Example of Cube Momentum in a Single Segment Run by Can't Even
Single Segment Dialogue
NOTE: Dialogue can sometimes fail to trigger with non-centered cube placement, attempt to place the cube in the center of the button to avoid dialogue not triggering at the end of the chamber
The optimal dialogue for the Elevator Fade is entering the elevator while the Announcer says "constructs"
"Well done! The Enrichment Center reminds you that although circumstances may appear bleak, you are not alone. All Aperture Science personality constructs [Enter Elevator] will remain functional in apocalyptic, low power environments of as few as 1.1 volts."