Wheelsis, in my opinion, the most fun minigame inSea of Stars. Although it is an optional challenge, facing the Champions in the taverns and inns of the universe created by Sabotage Studios is one of the main steps to reaching the true ending in this incredible RPG, as well as being a fun way to test your strategy and earn some Gold every victory.
Sea of Stars (Switch): Basic Wheels Guide
Check out the basic guidewe prepared below for you to become an expert in this minigame.
Understanding the mechanics
As a strategy game, Wheels requires the player, in possession of two Heroes, to defeat their opponent by dealing damage to their Crown. Each turn, you can spin the wheels three times in order to strengthen the miniatures or climb a wall to protect the Crown.
There are six types of wheels:
- Simple square: prepares the action of the miniature to the player’s left;
- Square with a blue background: grants the figure on the player’s left experience points to make the Hero move up in rank;
- Simple diamond: prepares the action of the miniature to the player’s right;
- Rhombus with a blue background: grants the figure on the player’s right experience points to increase the Hero’s rank;
- Hammer: builds a wall to protect the player’s Crown;
- Empty: does not guarantee any bonus or action to the player.
With the exception of the empty wheel, the others have illustrations that vary from one to three units and which, when counting points, work according to the three minus two scheme; that is: if, in a turn, all of the player’s wheels result in five squares, regardless of their type, this means that the Hero on his left will receive three action charges.
This same logic applies to the wall, which is capable of stopping attacks from certain miniatures depending on their height.
The maximum level for the wall is 6, and it cannot be built beyond that. The exceptions are the wheels with a blue background, which follow the one-to-one scheme.
Therefore, five diamonds with a blue background will result in five experience points for the Hero on the player’s right.
A miniature always starts at the Bronze rank and, every six experience points, advances to the next one (Silver), ending in Gold.
When a Hero at the highest rank fills the experience bar, he conjures a bomb that attacks the opponent’s Crown, ignoring his wall and dealing 2 damage.
Types of Heroes
The first contact we have with Rodas is when we arrive at the Port City of Brisk and we gain two miniatures: Warrior and Mage. As we face other Champions, we receive new Heroes, totaling six different classes.
Are they:
- Warrior: deals great damage at once, but its attacks are stopped by the opponent’s Wall;
- Mage: attacks twice per turn, one attack at normal height, which can be stopped by the enemy Wall, and the other directly at the enemy Crown;
- Archer: deals considerable damage to the opponent’s Crown and ignores the Wall if it is level 2 or lower;
- Engineer: this is a support miniature, capable of building the player’s Wall quickly, while it is easier to destroy the opponent’s instead of causing damage to their Crown;
- Assassin: like the Mage, attacks twice per turn, being able to deal low damage to the enemy’s Crown, but ignoring its Wall, and also postponing the action of the miniature in its line of action;
- Cleric: in addition to healing the player’s Crown, it advances the action of the other allied miniature.
Where to find Champions and their rewards
As I mentioned, the Champions of Wheels are located in the taverns and inns of the locations visitable throughout the campaign: Mooncradle, Builders’ Post, Port City of Brisk, City of Lucent, the Vespertine, Lake Docarria, Mirth, Celéstia and Repine.
For the latter, however, the player needs to buy a Portable Wheeled Board from the Watchmaker, in the Mechanical Castle, for 250 Gold.
The rewards, on the other hand, follow a specific order and are not tied to any Champion, meaning that the player can follow their own order in the Wheels “championship”.
However, it is important to keep in mind that, as you progress through the main campaign, the minigame’s AI becomes more aggressive.
There are nine awards in total:
- Archer Miniature
- Bronze Wheel
- Silver Wheel
- Engineer Miniature
- Golden Wheel
- Cleric Miniature
- Diamond Wheel
- Assassin Miniature
- Platinum Wheel
The Watchmaker and her Hammer
The player can challenge the Watchmaker, the creator of Wheels, once they defeat the other Champions in the game. However, in addition to having aggressive strategies, she changes them with each match, making her one of the most difficult opponents in the minigame.
However, defeating her rewards the player with a Fragile Hammer, an item necessary to reach the true ending of Sea of Stars.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed ourbasic Wheels guideand got all the rewards inSea of Stars. Do you have any fixed strategy?
Now, honestly speaking, I would love for Sabotage Studios to release a board version of this fun minigame, like what happened with Gwent, from The Witcher. Have you ever imagined getting together with friends to spend the whole afternoon rolling dice and coming up with strategies?