WheelMates Magnetic wheels ranked S

Magnetic wheels sit at S on this wiki’s gadget tier list because they change the house’s geometry, not just one puzzle. Official copy is blunt: the cars adhere to metal surfaces. Once that stick is reliable, shelves, ducts, appliance backs, and lab frames stop being wallpaper. They become roads. WheelMates is a two-player RC adventure through Professor Everett Bloom’s missing-person house. There is no combat and no timer. The reward for a new gadget is permission to reread a room you already drove.

If you are still learning throttle and camera, park this page and finish Getting Started. Magnetic wheels are not the first toy you meet. The May 6, 2026 demo taught controls and early power-ups in the Kitchen, then sent pairs into the Garage for rope and grab. Wheels are the later “the house was lying to you” upgrade. Treat them as the moment the campaign turns from corridor driving into a small Metroidvania.

What the gadget actually does

Magnetic wheels let an RC car cling to suitable metal. Floors still matter, but the useful trick is walls and ceilings. You drive onto a panel, stay attached while gravity would dump a normal toy, and exit onto a surface that had no ramp. That is traversal, and it is also puzzle design: a switch on a fridge door, a vent you could only stare at, a beam that only made sense from above.

The stick is not universal. Painted drywall, cloth, wood furniture, and random clutter will not all behave like a steel sheet. If a surface looks ferrous or industrial — appliance skin, duct, lab frame, tool cabinet — test it. If it looks like a sofa or a rug, do not waste a minute trying to magnetize fabric. The Walkthrough calls out the rooms where the material actually matters so you do not experiment forever.

Because both cars share the upgrade, you can split jobs. One player holds a vertical path so the other can cross below. Both can take opposite walls and meet on a ceiling plate. Communication is the real input: WheelMates has no in-game voice. Use Discord online, or talk across the couch in split-screen.

When old rooms reopen

This is the S-tier test. A gadget that only works in the room where you find it is a key for a door. Magnetic wheels are a key for a wing. After you unlock them, drive back through the Kitchen. Faces you treated as decoration — the side of an oven, a range hood, a metal splashback — often hide height you could not spend on day one. The same loop applies later: garage mezzanines, lab gantries, and house frames that were photographed in the background of an earlier shot.

Do not wait for a quest marker to say “return here.” Firevolt’s design is “the house keeps opening as you progress.” If you are stuck in a new space, the missing move is frequently a wall line you already saw without wheels. If you are not stuck but you care about secrets, the same rule applies: 6 hours covers the story, about 8 hours if you hunt extra paths. Wheels are how a lot of that extra hour exists.

How to drive them without fighting the physics

Launch handling is snappier than the first public demo. Steering responds faster, releasing throttle brakes less, and glancing a wall at an angle tends to slide instead of dead-stop. That last change matters on magnets: you want to kiss a panel and stick, not slam and bounce off. Approach metal with a little speed, not a panic boost. If you overshoot, let the car settle before you yank the stick.

Camera options from the June 15, 2026 Next Fest build still matter. Follow camera is calmer on a ceiling; free camera helps the second player call a landing. DualSense users get proper button icons, but any controller is fine. Keyboard split-screen is the awkward case — if player two’s binds fight player one, swap P2 to a pad before you attempt long wall runs.

Pairing with rope and grab

Wheels are S. They are not the only tool. A ceiling you can drive may still have a gap that needs the rope swing. A hatch on that ceiling may still need magnet grab in toggle mode. Rank S means “this gadget rewrites the map.” It does not mean skip garage kit. The garage is still where rope and grab debut, and many later rooms expect all three.

A clean habit: wheels for surfaces, rope for distance, grab for objects. If a puzzle looks like a driving problem, try wheels first. If it looks like a hanging problem, rope. If something has a lid, a button, or a loose part, grab. That triangle is the whole tier list. Cosmetics never enter it — paint the car on the customization page after you can actually reach the hidden parts.

Co-op habits that make walls feel fair

Call attachments out loud. “I’m on the hood, you’re on the floor” prevents both cars from stacking on the same panel and blocking the latch. If one player is worse at ceiling driving, let them own floor buttons while the other holds the magnet path. There is no solo mode, so you cannot practice the house alone; you can still agree on roles before a hard wall.

Friend’s Pass and Remote Play Together do not change the gadget. They only change who owns a Steam copy. The physics are the same online or on a couch. If desync makes a stick feel late, pause, realign, and retry the approach rather than blaming the rank.

Magnetic wheels stay S because every later gadget is more useful once you can arrive on the surface that gadget cares about. Drive the metal. Then go back to rooms you thought were finished.