Turrets - Portal Wiki (2025)

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.

Standard Sentry Turrets are voiced by Ellen McLain, while Defective Turrets are voiced by Nolan North.

General

Sentry Turret

Sentry Turrets are 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 entire cartridge, including the casing, without igniting the propellant, which may explain how the player can survive getting shot by the Turret so many times. To quote Cave Johnson, "that's 65% more bullet per bullet."

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. When thrown into an Emancipation Grill they will say "ow" repeatedly.

In Portal, Turrets will shoot at bulletproof glass and through portals when the player is on the other side. In Portal 2, however, Turrets will only follow the player behind glass with their beam and will not shoot through portals, opening fire almost immediately when the player moves out of the glass or through the portal. In addition, Turrets appear to be unable to see through Hard Light Bridges or Excursion Funnels.

Rocket Turret

The Rocket Turret, also called a Rocket Sentry, 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 the player and emit a sound before firing a rocket. Unlike Sentry turrets, it cannot be disabled or destroyed by the player; Attempting to redirect a rocket back at the turret with the use of portals will cause the projectile to fizzle upon impact. 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 to shatter the observation windows and other glass-made objects including a Pneumatic Diversity Vent throughout the offices and maintenance areas of the Enrichment Center.

Defective Turret

Defective Turrets, referred to as "Crap Turrets" by Wheatley, are incomplete, wrongly assembled and 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 southern 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 possess the innocent and feminine voice tones as they should. The only difference from regular Turrets is that they have been defaced. This is most likely because Aperture Science had not yet developed the modern casing. One Defective Turret in the final test chamber of this test course has evidently been 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 Chapter 8, 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. They are harmless, their the 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, and also known as the Opera Turret in the Portal board game, 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 to leave 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 taking a lift upwards 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 or lecturing a turret quartet.

• In chapter 6 (The Fall), broken Prima Donna Turrets can be found destroyed and burning on large piles along normal Sentry Turrets.

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 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, similarly to the Rocket Turret's targeting laser, and is able to burn the player similar to the burn of the Thermal Discouragement Beam. However, unlike the Thermal Discouragement Beam, its 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, although it lacks a model by default, resulting in it appearing as a bright blue ERROR.

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

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]}
• According to Bill van Buren, the Rocket Turret 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.
• In the official Turrets trailer, Cave Johnson states that turrets "fire" the whole bullet, which "is 65% more bullet per bullet".

Related achievements

Portal

Portal: Still Alive

Portal 2

See also

• Oracle Turret
• Defective Turret
• Turret voice lines
• Defective Turret voice lines
• Turret Opera
• Collaborative Disposition Test
• Turret Lullaby
• Randolph the Red-Nosed Turret

References