Exploring Half-Life 2's Mystery Battery | Cascade

I'm willing to bet that not only did you not ask for this, there's a very high chance you weren't even aware. Thanks!
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Twitter: / purplecolonelyt

[@CoffeeWaffee]

I presume a playtester managed to get up into the vent and went "hey why's there no secret item here?" and so instead of player clipping off the vent, a mapper at valve decided to throw in a battery.

[@fabiolacerdahenriques7676]

I think this is the best explanation we have, seriously.

[@DJL3G3ND]

@@fabiolacerdahenriques7676 honestly seems the most likely knowing what valves like

[@tacticaljunk1608]

Valve playtesters are notorious for following the wrong paths, so this story is likely.

[@du0lol]

This is most certainly what happened. Some tester must have managed to find his way inside that vent when he wasn't supposed to and a level designer opted to leave a battery in there just to reward any player that could have done the same.

[@tastyboi2163]

"Here's your damn secret"

[@Kirbman]

Shotgun shells on a roof in Ravenholm is not so strange if you remember that Father Grigori lives there.

[@DucksFor4]

He threw it at a person who got given a shotgun and accidentally knocked out the guy and killed him. Now it lies there.

[@ali_m_]

@@DucksFor4 LMFAO

[@Occycat]

Yeah but those are in the fast zombies jump reach so he had no reason going out there

[@shawermus]

@@Occycat what about some kind of backup ammo for situation when he would be left out in the open? Yes this sound strange and bad but it's _Gregory_ he it's the the type of guy to do that

[@tux1468]

Hey Kirbman, didn't expect to see you here

[@0necraftyninja256]

true gamers stack more barrels in the vent to reach the top area.

[@petarvasiljevic8764]

@@nmperdue4637 congrats

[@daylineli]

that was a pain in the ass for DeSinc

[@rusandrei8948]

Im le true gamer

[@Waffles_Syrup]

@@daylineli He spent an ungodly amount of time in there

[@sgt.miningdrill2680]

i did it too was kinda fun

[@soomlarr]

a 9 minute video discussing a single weird battery in a vent, god damn how do you do it

[@PurpleColonel]

trade secrets, cant say

[@griffingamer8624]

@@PurpleColonel What do you want to trade for it?

[@0mikr0n]

Padding the time by discussing every topic except the battery for over 60% of the video.

[@wta1518]

But this is his show. You're gonna watch it and you're gonna fucking like it.

[@soomlarr]

@@PurpleColonel but it's no secret that the best thing about a secret is secretly telling someone your secret, thereby secretly adding another secret to their secret collection of secrets! secretly.

[@schniemand]

I would spend like 54 eternities in every room in HL2 to look around when I played as a kid and of course I spotted and got that battery.

[@alarmy5211]

that battery was probably terrified

[@bigman1688]

fun fact: in synergy, there's a hidden crossbow in the vent

[@fyretnt]

What’s synergy again?

[@ak74qtdn]

@@fyretnt synergy is a half life 2 coop mod,you can try it on steam.

[@fyretnt]

@@ak74qtdn oh ok I’m not used to mods is why, the only mod I use is mmod

[@valen7142]

@@fyretnt it's standalone, you just need half life 2 of course, you can play the episodes too

[@fyretnt]

@@valen7142 oh ok

[@griffingamer8624]

The most logical one: Its where you were suppose to go originally before the map was changed to be less... venty. Map variety and all that jazz.

[@TypeKK]

My theory: Aperture and Black Mesa accidently sent that when testing their products. Gman just go Garry's Mod in the whole game to help Gordon a bit This happens because.....I can't explain it

[@butterss1178]

Probably why the valve in that section was hard to find

[@charliesnark6535]

I think a rat just found something shiny and stored it there :D

[@griffingamer8624]

@@charliesnark6535 The Halo 3 rat?

[@charliesnark6535]

@@griffingamer8624 quite possibly

[@IsmailofeRegime]

As someone who has played Half-Life since 1998, I'm pretty sure I never even knew of the HEV battery shown in the first few seconds.

[@-Zakhiel-]

Shame on you !

[@IsmailofeRegime]

​@@-Zakhiel- In my defense, I figured if that particular spot had no HEV battery right before the Resonance Cascade, it wouldn't have one laying around not long after it.

[@-Zakhiel-]

@@IsmailofeRegime I always saw this particular battery as part of the junk that's left from the elevator crash. They didn't die in vain!

[@hodispilled]

don't use the batteries. they make you forget... i don't even remember how I got here.

[@busygirlbeauty8437]

ha!

[@spacewolf9596]

Batteries? Aren’t you supposed to plank jump across the entire game like DeSinc?

[@Sethilliano]

So the ramp is most im- so the ramp is most important

[@dsg3012]

Or maybe a valve employee was bored and thought "eh why not?"

[@NahuNarutoKyubi]

Still rathet odd, especially considering there's an achievement solely dedicated to find hidden goodies in other spots like this (Lambda Locator) and this feels like it would be a perfect one for it but somehow isn't.

[@novacancy6682]

I like the one scientist who said “hello” while him and his friends were falling to their death and screaming.

[@Grayson-tk5hn]

"AH AHHH-hello AHHHH"

[@LamWarp]

Me still wondering who at valve decided to put it there: -.- Also... "Guh-man"

[@FalkyRocket2222]

guhman

[@danteezy945]

This is now his canon name and i refuse to believe otherwise

[@TypeKK]

I just call Gman as Garry Mann Since Gman is a like a typical Garry's Mod player (breaking physics). Don't know if he was from TFC

[@TinyDeskEngineer]

If I made a vent that people can get into I would definitely add an item to it, or at least make it lead somewhere interesting

[@fenn_fren]

Guh man is just how you'd pronounce it if he was a free and open source project

[@Rastrelly]

Everything beyond the upper turn of the vent is technically outside of canon. The battery could just fall from beyond that side. Theoretically there can be a resistance guy manhacked just after the bend, who tried to get to that same room Gordon ended up in from the opposite side, and he just dropped the battery when manhacks got to him.

[@PurpleColonel]

That's an interesting idea

[@rimtas04]

Perhaps some random nerd got mad at the other nerd and tossed a battery into a vent, which ended up in that place.

[@altaccount242]

Thats a pretty sick throw how it managed to stay upright

[@zyriuz2]

*Everyone screaming to their deaths* -the one guy in the elevator- "HelLo!"

[@Sercil00]

Getting "Half Life but the AI is self-aware" vibes here. "AAA- HELLOOO GORDON :)"

[@semyonpuzikov60]

Lost it at “the gahman”! 😂 Cheers from Russia! Great series!

[@farribastarfyre]

How did it take me THIS long to realize the show is called Cascade because it's named after the _Resonance Cascade_ that set the Half-Life series in motion?

[@ethanethanethawhipwhorp]

@smelly paws get out

[@lqu]

@smelly paws someone get the tau cannon

[@morshulinton4112]

@@lqu i have the gluon gun is that good enough

[@big.venom.snake.boss.]

@@morshulinton4112 let's get inter dimensional would a metal gear do?

[@ВасилийМорозов-л7х]

1:21 The dancing Macross walker always gives me laughs.

[@KangarooJay]

3:05 I like how you included that Freeman's Mind moment

[@JamesTobiasStewart]

Yeah that was a lovely moment.

[@aziztcf]

HEV chargers in warehouses make sense if you think about them as powered exoskeletons for the warehouse workers.

[@DmitriDmitri]

I was on voice chat with my friends playing through this game for the first time. Without thinking I decided to chuck a grenade into this vent, and my friends teased me about it. Then when the grenade exploded, the suit battery came FLYING out right at me, and I collected it. We had a good laugh about it.

[@ThatTravGuy]

I did not expect this to be as in-depth as it was. Great stuff, man.

[@ali_m_]

This better be in the half life 2 video, trav...

[@TDGalea]

"That would be an extremely small subset of players" So you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it?

[@kimdu-ri6893]

me fucking too man

[@MordeKhaiser]

Same. After playing hl1 multiple times, going trough the vent seemed most logical only to be met with a dead end haha

[@leon217]

I hate that battery. I've wasted way too much of my life grabbing that bastard, I would drop the barrel over and over. Only recently realized the 15 or whatever armor just isn't worth it. Definitely doing the reverse sprint jump next time.

[@EnclaveSergeantArchDornan]

barrel strat is easy, just grab a barrel, go up ladder, get it to fall backwards but get stopped by a support beam, jump on that said barrel, then jump into the vent

[@Roxor128]

This is probably an example of the game design rule of thumb of "If the players find a way to get somewhere they weren't really meant to go, put something there as a reward for going to all the trouble."

[@ashtongiertz8728]

4:51 nah, tbh it's pretty convenient, letting me use my familiarity with CAD programs into level design.

[@megalosergamer4480]

6:52 "Doctor kleiner" Doctor kleiner: UARRGHH

[@NikowoOneshot]

Someone at VALVe was probably tasked with putting pickups throughout the map and accidentally pasted the battery in there. Hammer always behaves weirdly with copy & paste, so it's possible that they pasted a battery into there accidentally and forgot about it until people started pointing it out.

[@D_YellowMadness]

Glad to finally see someone talk about that battery. I've never known of anyone finding that one or the one next to a watermelon in a dumpster you can only get into by walking on a series of fences. I've occasionally seen people find the SMG grenade on a machine in the room that leads to the barrels you shoot to swing a girder into a door but never by climbing the tiny one-hand ladder attached to the machine. My point is this game has some super obscure secrets. Like the one dumpster with an actually climbable ladder on it & a box inside.

[@Jess_Atomoxetine]

when your gameboy runs out of double a batteries (SAD)

[@BrainChili]

batteries among us

[@antthegord9411]

1:00 well that's a unique way to subtly hint that I should put a like on the video. Never seen it before so I'll oblige lol

[@OddsTheo]

"In the meantime, this is where I get off" I remember that scene. When The G-Man shows you his bedroom

[@thedungeondelver]

Ah yes, the Cinematic Mod.

[@Eyeling]

I always go for that battery and I never found it strange, although maybe that's because I forgot the puzzle to get the battery and was focused on that.

[@Kian00]

4:03 I actually remember trying to get into that vent and using a barrel to get in

[@Guruc13]

Loved the Freeman's Mind reference, thank you. I've listened to that series 16 times now while doing chores and stuff, and hearing it out in the wild feels so good. Like coming home. :']

[@yvindalexanderfrivold]

freemans mind is totally awesome and it boggles the mind that ross does not have more subs

[@4gu2tin03]

Player :Breaks glass Scientists: Scream as they fall to death Other scientist: Hello! 👋🏼

[@Axl4325]

Man I love these, I could see you talk about a misplaced asset any day of the week for hours on end

[@FormaldeHyena]

"... But it's my show, and you're gonna FUCKING LIKE IT." With confidence like that, how could I refuse?

[@richardkeith9498]

The right battery in the wrong place can make all the dif-ference in the world.

[@cURLybOi]

theoretically, you can increase shielding capabilities by adding power if the shielding is based on some form of electromagnetism, like perhaps particles of feromagnetic metal that are held as a shield around the person with electromagnets. maybe. i dunno :D

[@Kacper42PL]

I'm feeling like it was supposed to be a normal vent but testers felt probably disappointed by there being nothing exploration worthy, so they just placed a 'fuck off' battery lol

[@itsthem5699]

"That would be an extremely small subset of players." I actually remember doing that the month Orange Box for 360 launched `~` Everything was new and interesting and the physics felt amazing, working out things like that was part of the fun, and Valve knew it.

[@4.0.4]

Half-Life truly makes people capable of pulling content out of their rear Xen portal.

[@massofimpact5862]

4:04 cough cough... that's exactly not what I did on my first run cough...

[@Redbr34]

Fun fact, the mod synergy added a crossbow there

[@halo7372]

4:23 I uh-, that’s like exactly what I did my first time through.

[@mikejr7727]

"You're going to watch and you're going to fucking like it" is the exact phrase you use to get another sub

[@Feasco]

Placing useful objects in random hard to reach places for Gordon to find is *also* where the Guh-Man gets off

[@foshifonuki]

To easily get that battery you need to toss a granade so it will get launched towards you

[@roddydykes7053]

And there’s one grenade you can get earlier I think, in the crawl space with the torso zombie

[@TheAntlionGuard]

I remember this area because there's a crossbow in there in SMod

[@BrianMeatball1]

it's kind of a reward to you clearing the room without shooting the barrels. Because you can grab a barrel from up there if you don't

[@Slucker_]

i always imagined the armor working like a magnetic coil. Coils can work both ways: 1. when bullets fly near them they can produce energy (impact area location) 2. when you apply power to them, they can push bullets (bullet deflection) basically, whenever you sense electric current in a coil, you just apply an enormous amounts of current in reverse to the said coil those supercapacitor battery cells should be perfect for this massive power for a brief moment

[@norisgello2523]

I actually did that, I spent 20 minutes trying to get into the vent because I’m horrible at balancing barrels. I’m surprised this video exists but I like it

[@norisgello2523]

And I enjoyed it

[@TheSrSalvatore-]

The great mystery that I always had in my mind was in this part 2:44 , because at the end of the conduit on the right there is a zombie cut in half, if no headcrab missile is seen nearby, and the missiles appear much further on, where did that headcrab come from? who was that person? why were there grenades there? I wish you could make a video about this mystery

[@The_Butt_Cracker]

There's no mystery there. Zombies roam about freely just like any other creature. That one just happened to find a cozy vent and make itself comfortable.

[@earthtea6646]

I hate how much you literally explained EXACTLY how I got that battery in the manhack vent in my first playthrough lmao

[@a1batross_]

I never thought I wanted a 9 minute video about battery in a place I never looked in

[@benb9151]

Maybe Gordon was to use that vent as the actual entrance to the room, but the railway was too obstructed. The rebels wanted Gordon to know it was safe to jump down there but didn't have any spray paint or whatever

[@goldcrusader6712]

-This battery placement is weird. *elaborates for 9 minutes and 7 seconds like a chad*

[@tinpot64]

even before this video in my first playtrough i spotted it and found it very weird to be there, i tried to get it but i didnt learn how to tilt a barrel so i got annoyed and left it to be forgotten...

[@nilok7]

For using electricity for armor, if I recall correctly, there was an idea for the Future Force Warrior power armor concept to use electrically responsive gel armor that could harden to protect the wearer. Instead of using impact armor that hardened from kinetic force, it used electricity to harden the armor for a split second. This was done so it could also be used to turn the armor into a splint or brace if the soldier got injured without having to remove the armor itself. The concept has never been actually implemented due to the insane power requirements and the fact you can just use material properties for a similar effect, but hey, it does exist at least on paper.

[@DoomJoy666]

i just beat half life 1 for the first time at age 22 3 days ago (7/13/21) and its really all thanks to your video series that got me to actually click play. i always see games, install them, and never play. but with half life i was wanting to force myself given the games history and important status (sort of a "come on i have to AT LEAST have played fucking half life... its fucking half life") however, i didnt click play until i started watching your channel. it demonstrated to me how cool and important this game really is, so with that being said. i finally beat it, blue shift and opposing force, i can now understand why people hold it to such high regard. Not since i played Halo as a kid has a game had such an intriguing hold on me. Thank you for covering this 20+ year old game and showing it love still to this day. Thanks to you i now have a new favorite game to add to my shelf of favorites, oh, and i just started half life 2 for the first time aswell. Youre impacting people more than you might think lmao

[@TheJas20]

In Half Life Alyx there's a resin hidden in a similar fashion on second to last chapter thats very tricky to get, i'm surprised you didnt mention it. My guess is those hidden little easter eggs hidden by the devs.

[@theylivewesleep.5139]

I indeed did go through all that effort to get that battery.

[@kakiwav64]

I can say with full pride and confidence that I got that battery on my first playthrough EVER because I saw the vent and just wanted to get inside it.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

"I fail to see how adding power to a suit will make it more resistant to bullets." Well "powered armor" is something that has been experimented with in real-life in the military, and the proper name of one of the more known variations is "magnetorheological fluid". Adding power can totally make a material composition more bulletproof in theory. That, along with exosuits, which again are very real, make this actually one of the more believable and plausible concepts in the Half-Life universe.

[@alichank]

This dude talked about hammer, combine, random teleportation and G-Man because someone accidentally put a battery in vent

[@gaelforcewind2351]

I'm watching, and I'm FUCKING liking it

[@ayssersoussi6198]

We remember the Freeman. We are coterminous. There is no distance between us. No false veil of time or space may intervene. We see you still in Black Mesa. Clearly we see you in the Nihilanth's chamber. We bear witness to the bright eternity of the Nihilanth's demise. You leap, you fall, we see you flash beyond the barriers. For a brief time you joined with us. You are one. Between the worlds. Communion of the vortessence. And that other: a deeper mystery. No deeper than the void itself. We cannot forget those whose cords you cut. Forgiveness is not ours to bestow. Unity of purpose, the shattering of common shackles, as single road we tread. Your song we sing and shall sing for eternity. No matter the consequences of this struggle. You have brought us grief and jubilation beyond measure. We are there still, in observance of your final stroke. While our lay scattered at your feet, you severed the vortal cord that bound the Nihilanth to life, and to us. That sharp spur of hope has not dulled to this day. For once the lesser master lay defeated, we knew the greater must also fall in time. With you beside us, a talisman of victory, the day of freedom draws nigh. Your bright face obscures your darker mask. We call you sib, although your mind and meaning are a mystery to us. Far distant eyes look out through yours. Something secret steers us both. We shall not name it. We have endured these chafing bonds of eons, yet a single moment of further servitude seems intolerable! How often have we slipped our yoke, only to find it choking us again. Let this war end in either total victory or our extinction. No further compromise shall we allow. We take our stand beside you, here, upon this miserable rock. The way ahead is dark for the moment. What seems to you a sacrifice is merely, to us, an oscillation. We do not fear the interval of darkness. We are tapestry woven of vortessence. It is the same for you if only you would see it. How many are there in you? Whose hopes and dreams do you encompass? Could you but see the eyes inside your own, the minds in your mind, you would see how much we share. We are you, Freeman. And you are us.

[@NateWolfKira]

"But hey, that's just a theory, A GAME TH..." *crowbar to matpats face*

[@ThomasTalksAlot]

I think the most reasonable answer is it had something to do with the manhacks, at the station near the derailed train in route kanal, the radio talks about the combine flushing out the underground railroad with manhacks, this could be some kinda charging spot for manhacks if they run out of battery

[@VVen0m]

I have a feeling this video is considerably more ridiculous (and I don't just mean the premise), and I love it

[@TheLostwaveGal]

That battery is sentient and got stuck.

[@SkrapMetal84]

elevator falls scientist casually says "Hello" with no fear in his voice.

[@gaiamission7200]

It only got discovered after hl1 but there are forms of reactive armour that use a difference in current between seperate armor plates, when it impacts either the deformation of the plate, or the projectile, bridges the two current sources and it violently discharges, the accompanying magnetic field deforming and damaging the projectile, preventing it from penetrating the armor fully

[@YasonYou]

Armor has shields, shields use up battery. I like how in Black Mesa they made HEV zombies that throw out blue sparks when you shoot at them.

[@dsdy1205]

Electric reactive armor is actually a thing - a fluid-filled sandwich layer that stiffens in response to applied voltage. the HEV suit is probably covered in such armor, and the power cell is used to energise the sandwiches and stiffen up the armor when hit

[@TheSipow]

“Guhman” made me laugh so hard

[@markusgross9024]

The battery was modt likely just placed there as a little reward for exploring unintented routes in the level. Opposing force did the same thing with a battery hidden in that one cave area in one of the office maps.

[@EdwardChan.999]

4:30 There is actually another secret vent up there. DeSinc went up there on one of his classic videos XD

[@rogue_hunterspz4415]

A few minutes ago i was watching a source video of CSG, one of the props used in their video is this batter, which was OP, really weird how KZbin always has a phenomenal recommendations

[@mes0gots0its]

I guess I'm part of that very small subset of people who found that battery on their own. I always thought it was strangely placed, and even weirder that you could actually reach it, considering the janky concrete texture transition. I'm glad I'm not the only one who overthinks it a bit.

[@TacoWithChela]

3:50 i remember when i first played hl2 i was struggling in that chapter for a fucking hour, i was searching the exit, because the game doesn't tell you where to go most of the time

[@sauronsrighthandman301]

Literally, the first time I ever played HL2, I wanted to crawl in that vent. I saw the battery there, tempting me...teasing me... "You can't climb up here! It's impossible!" But I did it anyway, and devoured the battery as if it was candy, or glowing, battery-acid flavored ice cream...

[@ragmayor]

I legit tried so hard to get there thinking it was part of progression, until I figured out where to ACTUALLY go

[@scorpionevo880]

I always believed the HEV had an energy shield projected around it, and the batteries and HEV chargers power that shield. Explains why the suit is able to take so much punishment and why Gordon can go through the *hazardous environments* he finds himself in, such as radiation or cold and heat

[@zebitus5731]

0:24 what chapter is that ive never seen that door before

[@ShadeMeadows]

...You almost solved the Half Life 3 mystery. So close...

[@moonmoon4537]

Clearly some OG rebel tossed it up there and landed it perfectly upright, like a fucking boss

[@Fogolol]

aaand also put the vent cover back in there

[@Eira_]

there is another way to get the battery that doesn't require precariously balancing physics props. Earlier in route kanal (specifically the area where you first obtain the SMG) there's a hidden supply cache that rewards you with a single grenade, which is most likely intended to be used in this vent.

[@LostElsen]

Note that it has -1 fade in battery properties. This level probably had the player entering through that vent instead of manhacks before they came up with barrel pyramid and battery is just a leftover.

[@PurpleColonel]

That's possible. They pretty much just make cool rooms and string them together however they can

[@gm_fun]

I think that the way valve was placing in pickups in the game was changing the default object, because when you click in hammer it creates a player spawnpoint, and you can change it if you want to. A level designer may have misplaced the suit battery in the vent when trying to modify one of the manhack makers.

[@jksmellie]

"Anyone whose tried using this thing for any extended period of time will tell you it's an absolute nightmare." Back in 2009 as a budding design student I decided to try and recreate my small university campus in Hammer for a relatively basic project. We had a good 4 weeks to do it in and in that time I learned two things: Hammer crashes more than any Adobe product. Hammer lags more than any Adobe product. All I managed to do was create a series of coloured blocks and triangles representing the building and the carpark and a presentation where Hammer crashed about as many times as it did throughout the past 4 weeks, further cementing how fucking awful an idea it was. But I still got a B for the effort so there's that, at least.

[@andresa.ruizv.7413]

Did you know that you don't need to take that ladder to get a barrel up on the pipes? use the side-walk with the white light on the wall, use the barrer to get on the white pipe, once on the pipe, pick the barrel you used to get up there and place it near that damm battery :) Cool video! I liked the changes made to fit the HL2 world.

[@daesplays8737]

Some random Valve dev: haha battery This guy nearly 2 decades later:

[@abstractart5185]

because they knew people would go up there but they'd be upset if there was nothing in there

[@promedic2666]

You're probably the only guy that would go out of your way to make a theory about something as random as a battery in a vent

[@TheUplinkExperiment]

I like to imagine some Metrocops go down to these places to chill out without the combine breathing down their necks, and a few decided to throw things they had (Maybe out of boredom?) and one pitches the fucking battery into the vent, they don't wanna climb into the vent to grab it, so they place a cover on it.

[@n646n]

Headcrab shells fall right when you get there because you're being tracked by the combine.

[@Vaxerino]

surprised this man doesnt have over 100k subs