WheelMates Guides Hub
Buy once, pair up, and learn the house: Friend's Pass, controls, Kitchen, Garage, and secrets.
WheelMates is out on Steam for PC and Steam Deck as of 1 September 2026. Firevolt’s two-player RC adventure has no solo campaign, no combat, and no timers. You and a partner drive tiny cars through Professor Everett Bloom’s maze-like home lab, unlock gadgets, and piece together why the house went quiet. This hub is the map of every practical guide on the wiki. Start here if you still need a partner, a copy, or a plan for the first hour.
Use the Getting Started page to buy the game, set up Friend’s Pass, and find a duo on the official Discord. Then read How to Play before you blame the puzzles: controllers are recommended, keyboard split-screen rebinds for player two are a known pain, and the camera can feel hot until you try follow mode plus free camera.
Start here on day one
The campaign assumes two living players. Online co-op and local split-screen both work. Remote Play Together is supported if you would rather stream a couch session. There is no in-game voice chat, so open Discord (or talk across the sofa) before the first radio crackles. The Steam store page lists the $19.99 base price with a 10% launch discount through 15 September 2026. One purchased copy plus Friend’s Pass is enough for a full online run.
Firevolt estimates about six hours for the story and about eight if you chase secrets, mini-games, and extra rooms. The public demo already taught the opening loop: Kitchen for the first power-ups, then Garage for magnet grab, rope swing, and a more open floor. The house walkthrough explains the puzzle language without pretending we have a complete post-launch atlas of every closet.
Guides in this section
- Getting Started — purchase, partner, Discord, first-hour Kitchen, and why you cannot play alone.
- How to Play — steering, camera, controller versus keyboard, split-screen, handling patches, and how to talk when there is no voice chat.
- Friend’s Pass — one copy, two players, online guest, two-copy setups, and Remote Play Together.
- House Walkthrough — Kitchen to Garage to later rooms, Journal, objectives, audio hints, and co-op puzzle types.
- Kitchen — the first area, first gadgets, and what the demo already proved.
- Garage — open space, hidden paths, magnet grab, and rope swing.
- Backyard — dusk pool, ramps, satellite dishes, the June playtest, and the outdoor wing after Garage.
- Journal — optional story nodes, scans, memory cards, and why lore is not the critical path.
- Secrets and Collectibles — hidden rooms, scattered car parts, demo memory cards, and the eight-hour completion.
- Launch Review — an honest week-one take: It Takes Two structure, Re-Volt driving, camera notes, and $19.99 value.
How the house actually plays
Bloom’s home is not a race track. You drive across shelves, under furniture, and along pipes until a gadget reopens a wall you already saw. Magnetic wheels stick to metal walls and ceilings. The winch, rope swing, and hookshot cover gaps and levers. Magnet grab is a toggle: lift covers, drag objects, and yank puzzle pieces your partner cannot reach. Gadgets unlock as you progress, which is why backtracking is the campaign, not a side hobby.
Locations named in trailers, the demo, and studio posts include the Kitchen, the Garage, the Backyard, the laboratory, and the rest of the house. The Journal stores clues. Objectives sit in the top-right of the HUD. Audio nodes and radios talk when you are stuck, but they will not drive the second car for you. If a puzzle asks one player to hold a hazard while the other crosses, or splits a crane across two stations, that is the design talking: asymmetrical roles, not a bug.
What this wiki will not invent
Launch week is the wrong time to publish a fake room-by-room spoiler dump. Community maps of later wings are still being drawn. We teach the language of the house from the Kitchen, the Garage, official trailers, and Firevolt’s own notes, then send you to the pages above instead of padding this hub with the same paragraph twice. For patches and handling tweaks, watch Updates. For whether the game is worth a Tuesday night, read the launch review.
WheelMates is Firevolt’s first original game, built by people who have shipped large action titles and then chose a small co-op fantasy: two RC cars, one strange house, no guns. Controllers show Xbox and DualSense icons. DirectX 12 is required. Steam Deck is supported. PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Switch versions are planned for the first half of 2027 and are not out yet. Until those arrive, this hub is for the Steam build you can play tonight. Grab the Getting Started checklist if you still need a second driver, or skip to the Kitchen if the cars are already on the linoleum.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers for two-player RC sessions.
Where should a new WheelMates pair start?
Read Getting Started for buying and pairing, then How to Play before the first puzzle. The Kitchen is the actual first room.
Can I play WheelMates solo?
No. The campaign is mandatory two-player co-op. Use Friend's Pass so the second player can join without a second purchase, or look for a partner on Discord.
Do I need two Steam copies?
No. One owned copy plus Friend's Pass covers a full online session. Split-screen on one PC also needs only one copy. Two copies are optional if you both want the game in your libraries.
How long is the campaign?
Firevolt estimates about six hours for the story and about eight with secrets, mini-games, and extra rooms. There are no timers, so your pace is the real clock.
Is there a full room-by-room walkthrough yet?
Not a spoiler atlas of every later wing. The house walkthrough teaches puzzle types, HUD tools, and the Kitchen-to-Garage route, and stays honest about what launch-week maps still miss.