Portal of Power

Portal of Power
Role:	Transportator
World:	Earth Skylands Second Dimension
Attacks:	Transports Skylanders Energy blasts
Appears in:	Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Skylanders: Universe Skylanders: Cloud Patrol Skylanders: Giants Skylanders: Lost Islands Skylanders: Battlegrounds Skylanders: Swap Force Skylanders: Trap Team Skylanders: SuperChargers (Racing) Skylanders: Battlecast Skylanders: Imaginators Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
First Release:	Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

The Portal of Power is a pedestal used to transport the Skylanders, who are frozen as toys in our world, into the world of Skylands, connecting to the player's console of choice and bringing the toys to life in the game.

Appearance

The original portal from Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure and Skylanders: Giants was originally limited to read up to four pieces at max. This portal looks similar to the top of a stone castle, with a thick lip on the outer edge.

With the Introduction of the SWAP Force Skylanders, which are considered as two individual pieces, a new and updated Portal of Power was introduced, which allows for more room for the toys as well as being able to read more pieces than previously, such as when using two SWAP Force figures and a Magic Item all at the same time. This Portal of Power is flatter and not as tall as the original portal design, with the lip replaced with a thin wall.

In Skylanders: Trap Team, a new portal dubbed the Traptanium Portal was created to include the Portal Villain Vault and a Trap slot for capturing Villains as well as use them in battle. The portal also has a built-in speaker where captured villains can talk through. This portal is very flat and has a blue ring acting as a railing.

A newer, larger portal with a large silver Rift Engine was made for Skylanders: SuperChargers; it features additional space for both Vehicles and Skylanders. Unlike prior portals, this portal no longer has built-in lighting and the platform is very thin in height.

In certain regions, a modified version of the SuperChargers portal is included in Skylanders: Imaginators, while other regions got the older Swap Force portal with a gray cord instead of a black cord. The modified SuperChargers portal has an added panel with three runes covering up the trap slot.

Abilities

A Portal of Power can also be used as a viewer, giving Portal Masters the ability to seek out locations and characters of interest -- allowing the Skylanders to know exactly where to go. In Skylands, the Portal of Power serves as a transport pedestal to take the Skylanders to other areas or distances through the power of a Portal Master. Though in most cases Skylanders can be transported instantly to an area in the Portal Master's sights, additional regular travel may be needed for unknown or unreachable locations, and Portals may be built on an area to remedy that (as seen in Boom Town and the Eternal Archives).

During the events of SuperChargers, Kaos used the Sky Eater to cut off the portal connection between Skylands and other worlds, including Earth, rendering the Portals useless. The Skylanders were able to bypass this disadvantage by using the Rift Engines within the SuperCharger vehicles to create rifts to transport them around Skylands and other worlds. The Sun Runner was also built to retrieve objects lost in The Portal Network.

In Skylanders: Battlecast, the portals are rectangular and used for combat instead of transportation. They are capable of a Portal Blast that unites the eight original Elements' power for a Non-Elemental spell, and Portal Rupture temporarily destroys the portal to randomly attack enemies with energy blasts, though it appears to immediately regenerate itself.

In Skylanders: Ring of Heroes, the portals are once again redesigned, having the size of the original Spyro's Adventure portals, but bear a more futuristic appearance, and are worn by the Portal Masters as a medallion/amulet.

How to Use

To bring the toys into the game of Skylanders, you'll need the Portal of Power. You'll simply place the toy in the center of the Portal and instantly the character will appear in-game. This circular device glows different colors according to the elements of the characters and has the ability to recognize two characters placed on it at once to allow for multiplayer.

LightCore figures, Giants, Battle Pack items, Trap Team expansion packs and Creation Crystals will light up when placed on the portal.

A compatible Portal of Power is included with the respective game's Starter Pack, and may or may not work in other games depending on its version compatibility.

Portal Compatibility

System Compatibility

• The Xbox 360 portal will only work with the Xbox 360.
• The Xbox One portal will only work with the Xbox One.
  • This includes playing the Xbox One games on Xbox Series X/S consoles through backwards compatibility.
• The older 3DS portal can connect to on any platform through USB connection, with the exception of Xbox and mobile.
• The newer 3DS portal can only be used with 3DS systems, as it lacks the crucial USB port necessary for connecting to other platforms.
• PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U and PC portals are all interchangeable with each other, but they can't be used with Xbox or mobile.
  • They can also be used with PS5 systems when playing PS4 games through backwards compatibility.
  • The wireless portals for Wii and PS3 are the same and will work with either USB dongles regardless of platform.
• The Bluetooth portal included with Skylanders: Battlegrounds Starter Pack can connect to other platforms through USB, except for Xbox and 3DS.
• The Bluetooth Traptanium portal included with tablet Starter Packs only work for mobile.

Note! The portals may light up regardless of what console it's connected to, but the games will fail to detect a portal that isn't compatible with the platform.

Game Compatibility

• The older portals from Spyro's Adventure/Giants portals are interchangeable, and will also work with SuperChargers and Imaginators. However, several limitations will apply.*
  • The older 3DS portals has a USB port which can be used to connect to the console versions of Spyro's Adventure, Giants, Superchargers and Imaginators.**
    • On 3DS, the older portal will work on all games except for Swap Force, which requires the newer Swap Force 3DS portal.
• The Swap Force portal will work on all games except for Trap Team.
  • The 3DS Swap Force portal lacks a USB port and thus can't be used with console games. But it's fully compatible across all 3DS games.
• The Traptanium Portal from Trap Team is universal and can be used with all console games.
• The SuperChargers portal works with all games except for Trap Team, due to lack of built-in speaker.
  • A modified version of this portal was included with Skylanders: Imaginators in some regions, which functions exactly the same as a Swap Force portal.***

Note! Attempting to use a portal that isn't compatible with the right game will result in an error message being displayed.

*The Spyro's Adventure/Giants portal has a limit of up to 4 pieces that can be read simultaneously. For example; two players can each play a Swap Force figure in Superchargers when using the older portals, but because a Swap Force Skylander count as two pieces, that means the players won't be able to use a physical vehicle as a result. Instead they'll have to summon a digital vehicle.

**The 3DS portal may have trouble reading multiple figures simultaneously when played on the console games, particularly Swap Force characters, which technically consists of 2 pieces. However, when played on 3DS games, Swap Force Skylanders can be scanned with no issues.

***Although modified, the Imaginators portal still has the Trap slot components inside, which means trap can be used by disassembling the portal.

See also

• Traptanium Portal
• Rift Engine Portal

Gallery

• 
  Early conceptual Skylanders designs that include four early versions of the Portal of Power
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  Portal of Power displaying respective Elemental colors
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  Portal screen seen in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Wii)
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  Portal screen seen in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360)
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  A comparison between the first two portals
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  Mini Portal concept art by Roland Mechael
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  Mini Portal concept art by Roland Mechael
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  Mini Portal inspirations by Roland Mechael
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  Mini Portal inspirations by Roland Mechael
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  A comparison of the original and modified rift engine portals.
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  The Male Portal Master wearing his Portal as he is dragged into Skylands in Ring of Heroes
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  The Portal Master, back on Earth, realizing their Portal is activated.

Trivia

• The symbol of the Shattering Sigil is embedded on the side of the Portal of Power, as well as many other runes often seen in the games.
• In Spyro's Adventure and Giants, the dramatic, ethereal music that plays when the Portal of Power is empty is an epically slowed-down version of music that would normally play on that level.
• In the game's development, Trap Team's portal animation was known as "the Wormhole Concept."
• The console SWAP Force Portal of Power has the symbol of each element. Also, if you look at the edge of the windows on the sides, you could see the symbols from the first portal.
• In Killer Instinct (2013), during the Ultra combo music on Glacius's stage "Crash Site", you'll hear a sound that sounds like after putting a Skylander on the Portal of Power in Spyro's Adventure, Giants, or Trap Team.
• Many Skylanders refer to the action of being placed on the Portal of Power as "Booming" or "portalling". This also applies to the villains in Trap Team.
• According to Glumshanks in Skylanders: Giants, Portal Masters should not use the Portal of Power on themselves, as it will cause them extreme pain when transporting between realms, and electrical discharges that go on for some time. However, Kaos' Mom appears unaffected despite using it on herself several times.
  • It is also implied that the Earth Portal Master can travel freely with their own portal at the end of Ring of Heroes with no ill effects.
• In some stores, larger versions of the Portal of Power can be seen. It plays previews of the Skylander placed, as well as the current game's storyline.
• Despite the trap slot of the SuperChargers portal being inaccessible in the modified version, the trap-loading components are still included inside the portal's rift engine.
• Notably, the Nintendo Switch version of Imaginators does not feature a portal, instead using the NFC capabilities of the console's Joy-Con-R controller to communicate with Skylanders figures.
  • This version of the game stores all scanned figures in a database, similarly to the 3DS versions of Swap Force, Trap Team and SuperChargers Racing, allowing them to be played at any time.
• It was stated by Activision and Toys For Bob that Skylanders: Swap Force requires the newer Portal of Power in order to work with SWAP Force Skylanders, however this was only partially true.
  • SWAP Force Skylanders as well as their swapped combinations can be used with the original portals from Spyro's Adventure and Giants, this however only works in SuperChargers and Imaginators. The reason is because the original portals could only read up to 4 individual pieces (SWAP Force Skylanders being considered as two separate pieces), and Magic Items are no longer as useful in those games as they were in previous games.
    • In SuperChargers, two players can each play SWAP Force Skylanders simultaneously, but only as long as there are no physical vehicles being used. Instead, a digital vehicle is required, such as Instant Hot Streak. In order to being able to use two SWAP Force figures and a physical vehicle, the newer portals are required.
    • Another possible reason to why SuperChargers and Imaginators can use older portals is because both games have a Portal Owners version available, where the games come without a portal included in case the players already owns one from previous games.
  • In Swap Force, the newer portals are still a necessity as these were updated to being able to read more figures at once. With the original portals only being able to read up to 4 figures, which is not enough if one were to use two SWAP Force figures and one Magic Item at the same time.
  • When using a Nintendo 3DS portal in SuperChargers or Imaginators, the portal will have trouble detecting SWAP Force Skylanders, making them unplayable.
    • However, the 3DS version of Trap Team is able to scan SWAP Force Skylanders using the older portals as the game came with the older portal in some regions.
• Skylanders: Trap Team for Nintendo 3DS and Skylanders Imaginators came with different portals depending on where they were sold.
• The older 3DS and Bluetooth portals have an mini USB port, which was most likely meant to be used mainly with the now shut down web browser game, Skylanders: Universe. But since they use the standard USB connection, they can still be used with home console except for Xbox systems.
  • After the shut down, any subsequent Skylanders games with newer wireless portals no longer has a USB port on them. Only exception being Trap Team 3DS which sometimes came with the older portal instead.
• Xbox 360 and Xbox One systems are known to only work with their own designated portals and cannot use any portals from any other platform at all nor can their portals be used with any other platforms either.
• While Superchargers and Imaginators are compatible with older portals, the lack of Trap slot on some will prevent usage of traps. However, these older portals can still detect Traps by placing the chips as close to the metal ring inside the portal for them to be read, though this is not practical.