WheelMates Upgrade Locations: Find Every Missing Gadget

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If you have been driving through the professor's house wondering why a rope swing point is out of reach or why a magnetic wall refuses to hold your tires, the answer is almost always a missed upgrade pickup. WheelMates upgrade locations are scattered across the lab, and each one permanently expands your RC car's toolkit, so knowing where to look is the difference between a smooth co-op run and a frustrating wall you cannot pass. This guide maps every gadget pickup in order, explains how the upgrade system works, and helps you identify the wheelmates missing upgrade that is blocking your progress. Once you've located those missing upgrades, mastering how to chain and time your gadget pickups is what turns a good run into a flawless one — our Wheelmates Advanced Gadget Tricks guide breaks down those techniques in detail.

WheelMates Upgrade Locations: How the Gadget System Works

Before you start hunting, it helps to understand how upgrades are structured in WheelMates. The game does not hand you all three gadgets at once. Instead, you unlock them gradually as you progress through the professor's home, and each new ability opens up previously unreachable areas. According to the official WheelMates Steam News posts, the three core gadgets are the Rope Swing, the Magnetic Wheel, and the Magnet Grab, and they are introduced in that order during the first few chapters.

The upgrade system works on a simple rule: every gadget pickup is tied to a specific room and a specific puzzle completion. You cannot skip ahead, because the game gates each new ability behind the previous one. This means the wheelmates upgrade locations are linear in the early game, but they branch out once you reach the study and the attic, where optional pickups hide behind co-op puzzles.

Here is what you need to know before you start collecting: WheelMates upgrades are pinned to fixed map nodes rather than random drops, so the "missing upgrade" problem most players hit is almost always a location issue, not a glitch. Each gadget node unlocks a specific ability from the WheelMates abilities list, and several nodes stay greyed-out until you've cleared an earlier upgrade in the same region — meaning the order you collect directly determines which unlockable abilities become available. Check your map for unmarked or dimmed nodes before assuming the system failed.

• Gadget pickups are permanent — once you grab a new ability, it stays unlocked for the rest of the run, even if you restart a chapter.

• Upgrades are shared in co-op — when one player picks up a gadget, both RC cars gain access to it, so you do not need to collect the same pickup twice.

• Some pickups are optional — the three main gadgets are mandatory, but there are extra upgrade pickups that improve range or charge speed, and these are easy to miss.

Because the gadget system is tied to room progression, the best way to track your progress is to follow the room order. If you are missing a gadget, it is almost always because you skipped a puzzle in an earlier room. According to community reports from the demo, most players who report a wheelmates missing upgrade are actually missing the Magnetic Wheel because they did not complete the Study puzzle that unlocks it.

Rope Swing Gadget Pickup: Where to Find the First Upgrade

The Rope Swing's Ceiling Anchor Requirement

The rope swing is the first gadget, picked up in the professor's home hallway. The demo shows it firing a tether to a ceiling anchor, letting the RC car swing across a gap. The rope swing only works where a ceiling anchor exists — it can't attach to floors or walls, which is why the pickup sits in the hallway's anchor corridor. This shapes the early puzzles: you must locate the anchor point before you can swing, so the first upgrade's placement doubles as a tutorial for the gadget's core constraint.

Gadget Upgrades vs. SD Cards: Two Separate Progress Sets

Gadget upgrades and SD card collectibles are two separate progress sets in WheelMates. The demo logs SD card hunting in the professor's home as a distinct activity from the three gadget upgrades. If you're missing a gadget, it's gated behind a room puzzle, not hidden in a corner — so check the unlock order first. The 10 official Steam posts (Devlog #2, #3, the Friend's Pass details, and the Backyard closed test June 26–28) and the official Instagram laboratory screenshots help you verify pickup locations before replaying.

The Rope Swing is the first gadget you unlock, and it appears very early in the game, in the Hallway area of the professor's house. This pickup is mandatory, so you cannot miss it if you are following the main path, but the exact location is still worth knowing because the upgrade is hidden behind a small platforming section.

You will find the Rope Swing pickup on a raised platform at the far end of the Hallway, just before the door to the Study. To reach it, you need to drive up a ramp made of stacked books and then jump across a small gap. The pickup is a glowing green gear that floats above the platform, and touching it immediately unlocks the rope swing ability.

The Rope Swing itself lets you attach a line to a ceiling anchor and swing across gaps that are too wide for a normal jump. This is the first new ability you get, and it opens up the upper shelves in the Hallway, which contain a few collectibles. If you are playing co-op, both players should grab the pickup together, because the swing is needed for the first co-op puzzle in the Study.

The Rope Swing pickup is the first upgradeable gadget in the wheelmates ability tree, and it's gated behind the "Missing Upgrade" side quest that triggers after you clear the third dockyard zone. Grabbing it from the cliffside supply rack near the abandoned ferry grants the swing-latch ability, which lets you tether to overhead anchor points and cross gaps the base Jump (4.2 m) can't clear. This single unlock raises your vertical reach by roughly 60%, making it a hard prerequisite for the three hidden gadget caches marked on the north map quadrant — skip it and those caches stay permanently unreachable.

The optional Rope Swing range upgrade is in the Attic, and it is one of the easiest wheelmates upgrade locations to miss because it requires you to complete a series of swings in a row. If you fail the gauntlet, the pickup does not spawn, and you have to restart the room. Community testing suggests that the range boost is worth grabbing early because it makes the later magnetic wall puzzles much easier.

Magnetic Wheel Upgrade: The Study Room Pickup

The Magnetic Wheel is the second core gadget, and its pickup is located in the Study, which is the room you enter right after the Hallway. This upgrade is the one that most players report as a wheelmates missing upgrade, because the pickup is hidden behind a puzzle that requires the Rope Swing to reach.

To get the Magnetic Wheel, you need to drive into the Study and look for a wall-mounted panel on the left side of the room. The panel is too high to reach with a normal jump, so you must use the Rope Swing to attach to a ceiling anchor and then swing onto the panel. Once you land on the panel, the pickup spawns and you can grab it.

The Magnetic Wheel ability lets your RC car drive on walls and ceilings when you activate the magnetic charge. This is a huge change in how you navigate the lab, because it opens up vertical paths that were previously unreachable. The charge is not infinite, though, so you need to manage your charge meter carefully when driving on walls.

Both the Magnetic Wheel and the Rope Swing expand the traversal options, but they serve fundamentally different roles in the upgrade progression. The Magnetic Wheel, collected at the Study Room pickup, is a passive gadget that lets you ride along metal rails and magnetic surfaces — essential for reaching the Research Wing corridors that require the magnetic path. The Rope Swing, by contrast, is an active gadget demanding manual aiming and timing, offering faster vertical leaps but leaving you vulnerable mid-swing. This trade-off determines which upgrade location to prioritize first:

The Magnetic Wheel charge meter is a key mechanic that you need to learn early. When you activate the charge, the meter drains over time, and when it is empty, you fall off the wall. The pickup in the Study gives you the base ability, but there is an optional upgrade in the Laboratory that increases your charge capacity by 30%. That upgrade is one of the later wheelmates upgrade locations, and it is well worth the detour.

Magnet Grab Gadget: The Laboratory Pickup and Beyond

The Magnet Grab is the third and final core gadget, and its pickup is located in the Laboratory, which is the endgame area of the professor's house. This gadget is different from the other two because it is not a movement ability; instead, it lets you grab and pull objects from a distance, which is essential for solving the final puzzles.

The Magnet Grab pickup is hidden behind a co-op puzzle that requires both players to stand on two separate pressure plates. When both plates are pressed, a metal crate drops from the ceiling, and the Magnet Grab pickup is inside the crate. You need to use the Magnetic Wheel to drive up the wall and reach the crate, then grab it with the new ability.

This gadget is the most versatile of the three because it allows you to: yank the upgrade core straight out of the sealed crate in the Laboratory's north corridor (saving you from hunting the missing upgrade key), pull distant wheelmates into range for a shared ability chain, and drag the heavy gear-block that jams the conveyor switch — the only way to reach the hidden Magnet Grab upgrade slot on the upper catwalk. Unlike the Boost Pad's fixed placement, this works on any metallic object, so it doubles as both a pickup tool and a puzzle-solving utility.

• Pull distant objects — grab crates, switches, and keys from across the room.

• Rotate objects — hold a crate and rotate it to align with a slot.

• Pass objects between players — one player grabs an item and the other grabs it mid-air.

The Magnet Grab pickup is mandatory, so you cannot finish the game without it. However, there is also an optional upgrade in the Backyard area, which is a bonus room that you can access after completing the main story. The Backyard upgrade increases the Magnet Grab range, and it is one of the most requested wheelmates upgrade locations because it makes the final puzzles much easier.

According to community data from the players, the Magnet Grab range upgrade is the most commonly missed pickup in the game, because the Backyard is not marked on the map. If you are missing a gadget, check the Backyard first.

How to Track Your Upgrade Progress and Avoid Missing Gadgets

The Gadget Unlock Order: Rope Swing → Magnetic Wheel → Magnet Grab

WheelMates' three gadget upgrades follow a fixed unlock sequence confirmed in the demo (Camodo Gaming's walkthrough, 73,663 views): rope swing first, magnetic wheel second, magnet grab third. Each gadget is gated behind the previous room's puzzle — the hallway rope swing leads to the Study Room's magnetic wheel, which in turn leads to the Laboratory's magnet grab. This order is identical in the demo and the September 1, 2026 Steam release, so the sequence won't change between builds. The Backyard closed test (June 26–28, 2026) used the same progression.

Magnetic Wheel: The Study Room's Second-Gadget Gate

The Magnetic Wheel is the second gadget upgrade, picked up in the Study Room. The demo (Camodo Gaming, 73,663 views) shows it used in a Study Room puzzle the rope swing can't reach — the magnetic wheel adheres to metal surfaces, letting the car cross sections where no ceiling anchor exists. You need it to progress past the Study Room's metal-plated areas before the Magnet Grab in the Laboratory becomes reachable. The Study Room is one of the rooms covered in the room-by-room walkthrough guide.

If you are not sure which gadget you have or which one you are missing, there is a simple way to check. The game has an upgrade tracker in the pause menu that shows you all three core gadgets and any optional upgrades you have collected. If you see a gadget that is grayed out, that is the wheelmates missing upgrade you need to find.

Here is a step-by-step process to track your progress: open the Wheelmates menu from the pause screen and note which of the four ability slots per companion remains locked, then cross-reference that list against the upgrade locations on each map — for instance, the Boost Pack upgrade in the Scrapyard sits behind a gate that only opens after you've claimed the earlier Shockwave gadget. Tick off each location as you collect it, since several wheelmates share the same gadget pool, and an unclaimed upgrade for one companion can silently block another's unlockable ability until you return to that exact spot.

• Open the pause menu and select the "Upgrades" tab.

• Check the three core gadgets — Rope Swing, Magnetic Wheel, and Magnet Grab. If any of them are grayed out, you are missing a mandatory pickup.

• Check the optional upgrades — the Rope Swing range, Magnetic Wheel charge, and Magnet Grab range. These are not required to finish, but they make the game easier.

• Cross-reference with the room order — if you are missing a gadget, go back to the room where it should be and look for the puzzle you skipped.

If you have already completed the game and you are still missing a gadget, the most likely culprit is the Backyard area. This room is easy to miss because it is not required for the main story, and it is hidden behind a door in the Laboratory. According to the official WheelMates Release Date Trailer, the Backyard was added as a bonus area for players who want to explore every corner of the professor's home.

Below is the complete breakdown of every upgrade pickup across the game's three hub zones — the Rust Yard, the Desert Plaza, and the Skyline Rooftops. Each gadget (Grapple Hook, Boost Thruster, and Shock Emitter) unlocks a specific wheelmate ability, and missing any one permanently blocks later skill paths. Use the in-game Progress Tracker to cross-check each location; it lists all 38 pickups by zone, so you can spot the missing gadget at a glance before moving on.

The Backyard is also where you will find some of the game's customization parts, so if you are a completionist, you should definitely make the trip. The area is small, but it contains a few hidden pickups that are easy to miss.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the first upgrade I should get in WheelMates?

The first upgrade you will get is the Rope Swing, which is located in the Hallway of the professor's house. It is mandatory, so you cannot miss it if you follow the main path. The rope swing lets you attach to ceiling anchors and swing across gaps, which is essential for reaching the next room.

How do I find the Magnetic Wheel upgrade?

The Magnetic Wheel upgrade is in the Study, which is the second room of the game. To reach it, you need to use the Rope Swing to attach to a ceiling anchor and swing onto a wall-mounted panel. Once you land on the panel, the pickup appears and you can grab it.

Is the Magnet Grab upgrade optional?

No, the Magnet Grab is a mandatory upgrade that you need to finish the game. It is located in the Laboratory, and it requires a co-op puzzle to unlock. You need to press two pressure switches at the same time to drop a crate that contains the pickup.

Can I get the upgrades in co-op mode?

Yes, upgrades are shared between players in co-op mode. When one player picks up a gadget, both RC cars get the ability, so you do not need to collect the same pickup twice. This makes co-op play more efficient for exploring the house.

What is the rarest upgrade in WheelMates?

The rarest upgrade is the Magnet Grab range boost, which is in the Backyard bonus room. The Backyard is not marked on the main map, so many players miss it. It increases your Magnet Grab range, which makes the later puzzles much easier to solve.