Twilight Wheels Review

A while ago, I published a review concerning the first version of Daybreak wheels. Those have, of course, undergone a second revision, and have also sold well – to the point they’re out of stock. Enter a different variant from Drac, of all people, with Twilight wheels. Do they perform just as well? Testing points to yes.

Dart Envelopment

As illustrated in the aforementioned review, the goal of these types of wheels is a more efficient energy transfer than simply smashing darts together while spitting them out. As such, the wheels are physically closer, but have a concave profile to “hug” the dart being fired. It’s a balancing act between raw performance, fitting within the usual parameters of a Nerf-type flywheel cage setup, and not ripping off dart heads – and it’s one they do quite well. Even so, when they run out, Kuryaka has to wait on another order to be made, checked, and shipped from overseas.

A few weeks ago, meanwhile, Drac introduced a limited run of Twilight wheels on his website – machined in the US but also costing slightly more. They’re made to essentially match the characteristics of Daybreaks while keeping the look of Howler wheels (the ones that came with the Nyx cage). They’re also a fun purple color (aside from occasional special versions).

For clarification, relevant parties were aware – Daybreaks weren’t a new idea (derived from the Eclipse wheel idea), and from various maker conversations, these just appear to be a different spin on Daybreaks in turn.

Testing

The main testing, for our purposes, was replicating the original test – a dual-cage Fortnite AR. The original saw good use (even with what turned out to be a slightly misaligned wheel on one stage), but finally bit the dust after a very rough day at Apoc 2019. It also averaged 193fps with a 41mm cage and all Kraken motors on 3s.

This time around, using the newly released Fortnite AR Rippley, I replicated the test…almost. Since I’ve got the 3D printer running an all cylinders, I made a 40.5mm ABS cage. So already, there’s a bit more crush involved on the darts. Everything else, though, remained the same.

I did make sure to get all the wheels lined up perfectly this time, and the accuracy at range is much better as a result. More importantly, however, was the fps. With fresh wheels, fresh Adventure Force darts, and a charged battery, most shots lay between 210 and 220 fps. It’s not a perfect comparison, due to the difference in cage spacing, but it’s close enough to show there’s not a drastic difference for better or worse; performance isn’t radically different.

In a Stryfe with a single 40.5mm cage and Krakens, fresh Adventure Force darts averaged 168fps.

Final Opinion

As of this post, Twilight wheels were also out of stock. However, if and when they do reappear, they’re a solid alternative to Daybreaks for high fps blaster builds.