WheelMates Kitchen Walkthrough: Grapple to the Airlock

Source for this page: launch-day footage of a first-time pair on split-screen (about 23 minutes in the Kitchen), with the professor’s lines and the on-screen prompts transcribed. Times are approximate and are given so you can tell how far along you are.

1. Arrival and the first cores (0 to 3 min)

The transit gate drops you at the edge of the kitchen. The professor’s first node is urgent: the signal is collapsing, retrieve the Neuro-Cores (yellow orbs) to amplify the channel. Two things to do immediately:

• Drive up the ramp to the shelf with the buttons and press them together (sync press).
• Scan the napkin sketch nearby: a hand-drawn cat-feeder mechanism, the first Journal entry.

The map at the gate shows five rooms of the house; the Kitchen and the living room next to it are one level.

2. The living room detour and Tag (3 to 6 min)

Head left toward the living room. There is a pizza box to climb and a Jenga tower to knock over (the cat rebuilds it later). A purple pickup starts Tag: 40 seconds, the tagged car is faster, and the timer runs whether you play or not. It is optional but counts toward the Mini-games lovers achievement, so play it now while nothing is in the way.

3. The couch mission and the scanner (6 to 9 min)

The next objective is up on the couch: reach the highlighted zones and press both buttons. On the way the game hands you the scanner (“data harvesting module”): every scannable object needs a press to harvest. The newspaper article on the counter introduces Everett Bloom, senior lead researcher at the Carl Zimmerman Institute, Department of Neurocybernetics and Resonant Systems, and mentions a code.

After the couch buttons the house security fires counter protocol one: the professor warns that the tracks are now deliberately harder until he regains override priority.

4. The Grapple (about 9 min)

Go left at the split. The Grapple is the first gadget and every car gets it. The data record you pick up describes it exactly: a pneumatic grapple for arc traversal that latches onto surfaces, triggers buttons and sensors without anchoring, pulls heavy levers with the car’s drive, and retracts automatically at maximum extension. (Its warning about ceiling fans matters in the Garage.)

Controls on a pad: hold D-pad up to aim, left bumper to fire. The trigger is not the fire button, which is the most common first mistake.

5. The paired levers (10 to 12 min)

Two levers, one yellow, one red. Each car latches one, then both reverse at the same time. If a lever will not move you are pulling with the trigger instead of driving backwards, or you are not in sync. When both go, the fan or hazard between you switches off and the professor tells you to grapple across the gap.

Swing across, find the next button pair, and the objective moves to the kitchen side: one down, one to go.

6. Sync tracks and the basement rule (12 to 14 min)

A node explains the level’s logic: the winding tracks sync your helmets to the professor’s system, and full sync plus enough cores lets him override security and unlock the basement. Finish each track to its end. A green chip (Neuro-Core) sits just below one of the bridges; press the buttons, drop down, take it, and use the teleport-back prompt to return.

7. The tea-bag experiment and the memory card (14 to 17 min)

Two story pickups sit near the kitchen reactor: a node (Record 37: steeping a tea bag in 1.5 seconds with a neuro-helmet-driven motor, which ends with tea on Oliver’s glasses) and the first memory card on the reactor itself, Oliver shouting at Everett about storing toxic BH-19 in the kitchen fridge with pipes under the island. On a controller, move down into the log with the left stick; the right stick does nothing here.

8. Under the sink: BH-19 (17 to 19 min)

The path continues under the sink. The green liquid is BH-19 byproduct: highly conductive, and touching it “instantly decommissions” the car. Stay on the pipes above it. Press the button at the far end, then a second one. Two more buttons wait up top on the other side; the way there is a grapple swing, so if you miss the first point, go back around rather than trying to jump it.

9. Steam, swings and the split (19 to 23 min)

• A blue magnet symbol here belongs to a gadget you do not have yet. Ignore it and come back after the Garage.
• One car presses the button that stops the steam, the other crosses. Say who is which before anyone drives.
• The swing needs momentum: latch, swing back, swing forward, release. Do not jump at the anchor; drive up close and fire.
• Up top, the button on your side stops the vent that blocked your partner. Now both cars can reach the local capacitor, a node that shows the exact number of Neuro-Cores banked in this sector.
• Pull the capacitor lever together. The professor announces the threshold is breached and asks you to keep collecting for the basement door.

A wall of buttons here opens a secret with the Snowball telemetry log: the cat escaped her neuro-collar in the crawl space during testing.

10. The synchronization airlock (about 23 min)

The last node is the airlock: before you can move deeper, both helmets have to be aligned and stabilised. Both cars enter, the process runs, and the basement door to the Hallway opens. There is a data chip under the living-room table if you want it before you leave; the transit gate takes you down.

Kitchen achievement unlocks on completion (70.5% of owners had it on Sept 2). Next: the Hallway walkthrough.