Sea of Stars Wheels guide | All locations, unlocks, and how to win
Like any good retro style turn based RPG, Sea of Stars is full of side activities and mini games to dive into when you just don’t feel like saving the world. The star attraction of these distractions is Sea of Stars Wheels, a slot machine based combat game played with little figures. Just because it’s a fun little side venture don’t go thinking that Wheels is easy. Between us here on our team we’ve spent hours losing matches of Sea of Stars Wheels when the slots don’t turn in our favour, but don’t let that put you off becoming a platinum master.
Although a significant amount of success can be obtained by just being lucky at wheels, there’s a significant chunk of skill and strategy to take into account too. If you’re struggling with the latest Champion match and just want to give up, don’t despair, just read through our Sea of Stars wheels guide and you’ll be a pro in no time.
Also note, there’s an achievement/trophy associated with wheels, and we’ve left the details on all the locations and rewards until the very end of this guide, so scroll down if you’re just after that information. Though note that it might contain some location spoilers, because of the nature of that information.
Sea of Stars wheels: The basics
In Wheels you have two units that fight for you, and the aim of the game is to use them to take the enemies health down to zero. The enemy side will also be aiming to do the same to you though, so it’s a race to see who can deal damage the fastest.
To activate one of your units and get it to attack the enemy, you’ll need to spin the slot machine and aim to lock in the appropriate coloured symbols to unleash an attack. It’s important to keep yourself healthy too, which is best done by spinning the hammer symbols that build a little wall around your hitpoints. With the basic rules in mind and a bit of luck you’ll win your first few matches, but that probably won’t cut it as you progress further in the game.
Levelling up units
As well as dealing damage to the enemy, it’s also worth focusing on levelling up your units to make them stronger. You can do this by spinning and locking in symbols with a starry background, which will grant your unit a point of experience (displayed as little lights on the base of the unit’s figurine). A unit will also gain two experience points for attacking, but these don’t carry across once you level up so make sure you don’t over level and waste that precious XP if you can help it.
When a unit levels up it deals more damage, and especially for units that attack multiple times (like the Mage) or deal less damage at low levels (like the Thief) it can be a hell of a worthwhile boost. That being said, if the enemy is low on health there’s pretty much no reason to chase the experience, so pay attention to those hitpoints.
Attack heights and walls
Each unit in Wheels fires off its attack at a different height, and if that height is higher than the wall of the enemy it’ll soar over it and damage them. This is best demonstrated by the Archer, who fires an arrow that flies high above all but the biggest walls to deal damage to unprepared enemies. For some units it’s often not even worth attacking until a wall is chipped away by someone else, so always think about walls before acting.
Conversely building your own walls should only be done when the situation calls for it. Knights can deal loads of damage to you, but even a tiny wall will save you from an attack from one. A tall wall will even keep archers at bay, but against some foes walls are practically meaningless. Try to figure out what attack might be coming next and if a wall would be the best way to stop it, and you’ll have a much better chance of winning.
Ditch the Knight as soon as possible
Because a single brick will stop a knight’s attack, it’s just not worth using him unless you do everything in your power to get rid of any and all walls before he attacks. Even then the enemy will almost always manage to put up a wall the moment you ready an attack, so it’s best to just ignore him entirely and focus on using your Mage until you get a new figure.
The Mage is useful for the entire game
The opposite of the starting Knight, the Mage is a force to be reckoned with from your first game of Wheels to your last. The fact that this badass spellcaster fires two shots with each attack means the enemy wall will pretty much always be at least low enough to get hit by the second fireball, and this helps with lowering the wall for your other units while also dealing damage.
The Mage and Archer are a match made in heaven because of this, but shoved into any composition this wizardly unit will almost always perform to perfection.
Experiment with different units
If you aren’t having a lot of luck with the Mage in a particular wheels matchup, there are still plenty of other combinations to use in a pinch. The Cleric and Thief combination is fantastic for when you don’t really want to worry about walls, with the Cleric keeping your health topped up enough to level up your Thief until he can decimate the enemy without even breaking a sweat. Just experiment with all your new units when Wheels is getting you down, and before you know it you’ll be winning even the toughest battles.
When all else fails, wait for some lucky spins
There’s not a single Wheels encounter in Sea of Stars that can’t be beaten with enough luck, regardless of all the other factors in the game. If you replay a fight enough times then eventually the slots will give you the results you need to win, so when all else fails just grind away until lady luck throws you a bone. You don’t need to be clever if you get lucky enough, and one win is all you need to unlock a tasty reward from a champion battle.
Every Sea of Stars Wheels location
There are ten locations in total for wheels to be playable, and the tenth one is a spoiler, so you have been warned. Here’s all ten wheels locations.
- Brisk
- Town of Lucent
- Stonemason’s Outpost (After Dweller of Woe)
- Vespertine
- Lake Docarria
- Mooncradle
- Clockwork Castle Clocktower – Watchmaker
- Cloud Kingdom
- Mirth – once you’ve built an inn
- Repine – you’ll need to get the portable board to the tavern
The only part you’ll need to note here is that to unlock wheels in Repine, you’ll need to go to visit the Watchmaker and pay him to get the portable wheels table. You’ll need 250g to buy it, then go back to Repine and give to the NPC, who you can promptly beat. You’ll see the NPC in our image above, to the very right at an empty table all by their lonesome. Speak to them to start this mini-quest off.
Every Sea of Stars Wheels reward
While you can play any wheels table in any order, the rewards will be dolled out in the same fashion, no matter where you win. So here’s the list of rewards you get for beating each champion match.
- Archer Figurine
- Bronze Wheel
- Silver Wheel
- Engineer Figurine
- Gold Wheel
- Priest Figurine
- Diamond Wheel
- Assassin Figurine
- Platinum Wheel
- Flimsy Hammer (and achievement, for beating the Watchmaker)
