This is a follow-up to part 1 in which we performed a fairly thorough sweep of the test chamber to identify all the components that might help us get to the exit.
We're not going to try come up with a complete solution immediately. We have some simple sub-goals to accomplish first. We know that we'll need the first box for use on the button, and the second box, the deflection box, to deflect the laser, so our first goals are to retrieve the two boxes.
The first box looks like the easier of the two. There are no portal-accepting surfaces up near the box and the only one portal-accepting surface that is pointing in that direction is the angled surface marked T before. If we can achieve sufficient momentum and emerge from a portal on that surface we should reach the box. The simplest way to gain momentum is to simply fall from a great height and the simplest way to gain height is the same way we plan to get our box to the ceiling...
Light funnel directed through a portal
Portal at the light funnel and portal on a floor and we now have a light funnel that will force anything towards the ceiling. We step into the light funnel and are pushed up to the ceiling.
Pushed up to the ceiling
Now we have our height, shooting a blue portal anywhere will remove the existing portal through which the light funnel is being directed, allowing us to fall through the orange portal and with that momentum out of the blue portal. As indicated previously, we want to shoot out of the surface T. We simply shoot a blue platform at that surface - we fall; into orange and out of blue, and when we regain our orientation, we are atop the platform right by the box. We take it down to the main level.
Now to the pit area for the next box which is also on a raised area. There's also a conveniently angled portal-accepting surface facing in that direction. So we can try the same technique. Blue portal at the light funnel, orange portal on the floor, and up we go to the ceiling.
Ceiling of the pit area
Shoot a blue portal at the angled surface (S), we fall and are flung out from S ... straight into the light funnel. So that's going to be a problem - we're going to have to disable the light funnel in order to be flung through that gap. That's easy enough: we use our first box to block the laser.
Laser blocked by box
Now the problem is that we no longer have the light funnel for gaining height, so we need another method for gaining the necessary momentum. There a few tricks we can try by fiddling around with jumps and portals in the pit, but none gives us quite enough distance coming out of the portal on surface S. The time has come to take stock of all components in the chamber and see what might help us. Well, we haven't used the faith plate (catapult) yet and it's quite a good source of momentum!
Set up for the faith plate catapult
Orange portal to the faith plate target T and blue portal to our angled surface S. We step onto the faith plate and are flung through T->S and right next to our second box.
With both boxes retrieved, it's a simple matter to set up the finale. The deflection box deflects a laser onto a portal-accepting surface in the pit. The normal box is placed on the floor below the button.
Portals connect the laser to our laser trigger to lower the first elevator platform (4).
Laser trigger triggered
As soon as we break that portal connection, the elevator platform will rise again, so we step on to the elevator. Now to lower the second elevator platform (5), we need to project it up to the ceiling button with the light funnel. But the light funnel's no longer active because the laser is being deflected away from that trigger with the deflection box.
Laser currently deflected by deflector box
No problem! We just shoot a blue portal beneath the deflection box and it will fall out of the orange portal. The laser will trigger the light funnel which we can then use to push the first box up to the ceiling button.
Box is pushed onto button
This lowers the second elevator platform (5) - we get on it and shoot another portal to break the light funnel holding the box against the button. Up we go and we're at the exit!
This isn't the hardest test chamber in the game, but it is one of the more complex as it involves quite a few different elements. It's easy in such situations to forget about a crucial element and go off on your own tangent like I did with fancy portal jumps in my failed attempts to get up to the deflection box. But taking stock of what you have, and thinking through the requirements logically as shown here, is almost always sufficient to get you through all of the Portal 2 test chambers.
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