Highlights
- Sea of Stars features a unique minigame called Wheels, which involves a roulette of tiles and figurines attacking and building walls.
- The Mage figurine deals massive damage but has a high turn counter, while the Archer attacks with arrows and can go over short walls.
- The Warrior is a basic yet effective figurine with a small turn counter, while the Engineer builds walls and attacks simultaneously, making it useful when paired with a heavy-hitting partner.
In-universe minigames are nothing new to the world of RPGs. These can be deceptively deep and compelling, representing significant time-sinks in and of themselves. A lot of the time, they’ll take the form of a card game, where players travel the game’s world, interacting with different characters and challenging them to a round or several.
Sea Of Stars takes a little bit of a different route. Instead of a card game, the minigame on offer here is called Wheels. The game involves a roulette of tiles and various figurines, each of which takes turns attacking and building up a wall as well as leveling up. There are six primary figurines in the game, and they each boast unique effects. This list will rank them all.
6 Mage
The Mage is not necessarily a bad character. In fact, there are plenty of ways to approach the game of Wheels, and some strategies can utilize him greatly. The only problem is that he has such a high turn counter that it takes him a long time to attack. When he does, though, he deals massive amounts of damage that can end the game fairly quickly.
Leveling the Mage up can help to eliminate some of these counters so that he attacks faster. As a result, players may want to focus on leveling him up rather than attacking first. Plus, the Mage has the ability to deliver two fireballs, which is helpful when a player has a wall up. While certainly strong, the Mage is particularly difficult to use effectively.
5 Archer
While the Warrior is the most basic figurine, the Archer is just one step above it. This is probably why they are the first two figurines to become available in the game. Like the Warrior, the Archer’s main role is simply to attack. It doesn’t have any other special abilities that involve support or strategy.
The one thing the Archer has up on the Warrior is the fact that it attacks using arrows rather than a sword. This ranged capacity means that its arrows can actually go over a wall, but only if it’s short. If the enemy is prone to building up big walls, the Archer may be a liability, especially considering that its attack counter is so high.
4 Warrior
The Warrior is the standard figurine, and the one that players should really focus on when learning the basics of Wheels. Unlike all the other characters, who tend to use special abilities and quirks in order to get one up on their opponent, the warrior is extremely basic and effective.
It accumulates points to level up while also taking down its turn counter. Once that’s up, it attacks. It’s as simple as that. Just because it’s basic, though, it doesn’t mean that it’s bad. On the contrary, the Warrior has a relatively small turn counter compared to most figurines. This means it can attack fairly quickly. With the right amount of rolls, a game could be over using the Warrior before the opponent has any idea what’s going on. Further strategic options are much more limited when using this figurine, though.
3 Engineer
The Engineer is the first figurine the player receives that has a special ability above simply dealing damage. As with the main characters’ skills, it has some more creative options than that. When the Engineer’s turn comes up, it builds up a wall while also attacking the enemy. This unique ability becomes extremely effective, as it eliminates the need for the player to focus on building a wall on their own.
A downside to the Engineer is the fact that its attack power is not that high. While it’s certainly helpful that it can deal damage, it’s best if it’s paired with another character that is capable of dealing heavy blows. In this way, the Engineer can take down the opponent’s wall while its partner finishes them off.
2 Assassin
At first, the Assassin might not seem like such a great character, because its power level is not that high. It’s hard for it to attack and deal some serious damage compared to some of the other figurines. The Assassin’s unique abilities, however, definitely make it a standout unit when utilized properly.
The Assassin essentially has two unique traits that work at the same time. The first is that it’s not affected by walls. The AI opponent doesn’t necessarily take this into account, so while they continue to build walls, the Assassin just works around them. It also can add counters to the opponent’s figurines, ensuring that it takes them a lot longer to attack than normal.
1 Priest
The Priest doesn’t have any attack abilities at all, so it might seem like a useless character. There’s much more to Wheels than just raw offense, however. When a strategy is built around the Priest, it is incredibly important, as it offers the only way to heal the player’s health and prevent them from being knocked out earlier.
The Priest doesn’t just heal, either. It also knocks down some counters on its partner’s figurine. When paired with another character that can actually attack, the Priest can be vital as a great combo character (a crucial concept for the main campaign too). It’s also important to note that, like all the other characters, a golden Priest can deliver a bomb to the opponent when it levels up. As such, it does still have damaging potential too.