WheelMates Wiki — Co-op Guide, Walkthrough & Puzzles

WheelMates is designed from the ground up for two players. While you can boot the game alone and explore the opening rooms, every meaningful puzzle, hidden room, and progression gate requires the second RC car. A 14-reply Steam community thread has been asking for an official solo mode; Firevolt has not announced one as of the latest Devlog. Until then, your best solo option is the second-player controller on a single keyboard.

Friend's Pass is a free invite system confirmed by Firevolt for the September 1 launch. The owner of WheelMates invites a friend through Steam, and the friend downloads a small client to join the full game co-op at no extra cost. You only need one purchase of the full game per session. Friend's Pass works with both online co-op and Steam Remote Play Together.

Yes — Valve's Steam Deck is officially supported. The game runs natively on SteamOS, and the controller mappings use both players on the built-in controls plus an attached second controller for local co-op. Performance is solid at 60 FPS with the default graphics preset. If you hit frame drops, lower the shadow quality in Graphics settings.

Yes, WheelMates supports cross-platform multiplayer between Windows PC and Steam Deck. The Steam Remote Play Together option also lets you stream one copy of the game to a friend on another machine. Console ports have not been announced.

There are four collectible types: SD cards, Memory Cards (audio logs), Scannable Objects (personal notes), and Journal entries. The demo alone shipped 18 SD cards scattered across the lab — the full game's exact counts will be confirmed on launch day. Our Collectibles hub tracks every confirmed location and what each collectible unlocks.

WheelMates releases on Steam on September 1, 2026. The release was moved up from the originally announced September 7 date via an official Firevolt announcement on August 12. Demo access ended on August 3, 2026, ahead of launch.

No, WheelMates does not include built-in voice chat. Most players coordinate through Discord, Steam Voice, or a separate party-chat app. The Steam Deck's built-in microphone works with Steam Voice but not in-game.

Partial rebinding is available through the in-game Controls settings, but as of the last demo build two-player on a single keyboard still uses fixed key assignments. Using two controllers is the recommended setup for local co-op and is fully rebindable. For online co-op, both players use the standard controller or keyboard setup independently.