How To Break The Mini Teleporter

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 29, 2024 3 Views 5 Min Read
How To Break The Mini Teleporter

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In Half-Life 2, the game’s most light-hearted Easter egg is hidden under the “What Cat?” achievement that you can unlock. However, unlike most achievements in the game, the “What Cat?” achievement requires you to break the mini-teleporter in Dr. Kleiner’s lab. To make things complicated, the game doesn’t tell you about what’s involved in the process of breaking the teleporter and leaves it up to the player to discover it by chance or through trial and error.




Nevertheless, if you’re specifically concerned about unlocking all the achievements in Half-Life 2, you’ll inevitably discover the requirement for the “What Cat?” achievement but not know of a reliable strategy to break the teleporter. If you’ve been stuck trying to overload the mini-teleporter in Dr. Kleiner’s lab for quite some time, this guide should finally provide you with the tips to break the teleporter and earn the associated achievement.

Featured image for Half-Life 2 featuring the platform in Ravenholm and a zombie.

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Locating The Teleporter In Dr. Kleiner’s Lab

Mini-teleporter in Dr. Kliener's Lab in Half-Life 2

In the chapter, “A Red Letter Day,” Gordon Freeman follows Alyx to Dr. Kleiner’s lab and right as you enter the lab, you can find the mini-teleporter on your immediate left. While Alyx and Kleiner discuss a few things, you can explore this facility and fiddle with the teleporter.


While interacting with the teleporter is not important to progress the story, it does play a significant role if you’re interested in unlocking all the achievements in Half-Life 2. The teleporter features a button that activates the machine and teleports items between the two platforms. However, to break the teleporter, you must repeat the teleportation process multiple times before the machine gives out and the game rewards you with the “What Cat?” achievement.

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How To Break The Mini-Teleporter In Half-Life 2

To unlock the “What Cat?” achievement, you need to interact with the teleporter and teleport objects between the two platforms. While you can teleport the cactus plant that’s already present on the platform, using bigger objects like boxes speeds up the process. Here are the steps involved in successfully teleporting objects in the mini-teleporter and overloading the machine:


  • If using the cactus plant to break the teleporter, ensure that you place the plant correctly on the teleportation platform before activating the machine. If done incorrectly, the machine will continue to function, but the plant will not teleport over to the other platform.
  • While the teleporter includes two platforms, the switch to activate the teleporter is under the platform on the right. You don’t necessarily have to approach the other platform before teleporting the plant back to the previous platform.
  • Keep teleporting the cactus plant to and fro between the two platforms until sparks start flying from the teleporter, and you no longer get the prompt to interact with the machine.

Just as the teleporter overloads, you’ll notice the “What Cat?” achievement pop-up on your screen, and it’s actually a reference to the conversation between Alyx and Kliener that you probably missed while engrossed in breaking the machine.

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