Brawl Stars: Wendy is playable in early access from August 13 — full kit, fusions, and how to keep her alive

Wendy is the 106th Brawler in Brawl Stars, and she's been playable since August 13 in early access. Ranked Mythic, in the support class, she arrives in the middle of Season 53 Windstock with a profile the game had never really offered before: the most fragile character in the roster, whose whole point is to never take a single hit.

A useful clarification before going further, since it keeps coming up in every comment section: Wendy keeps her English name in the French client. Unlike Crow, Ricochet or Wally, she wasn't renamed. Her abilities, on the other hand, are indeed translated, and it's under those labels that you'll find them in-game.

The kit, with the exact French labels

Here's what you have at your fingertips once Wendy is unlocked:

• Attack: Sèche-cheveux (Hair Dryer). A continuous stream rather than a burst shot. This is what dictates her whole positioning: she needs a clear line and sustained exposure time, not a brief firing angle.
• Super: Dôme protecteur (Protective Dome). This is the centerpiece. The dome absorbs 75% of the damage taken inside it. It's not a health shield, it's a reduction — the distinction matters enormously, we'll come back to it.
• Gadget 1: Aéro-propulsion (Aero-Propulsion). Mobility, in a kit that sorely lacks it.
• Gadget 2: Grenade verte (Green Grenade). The control and zoning option.
• Star Power 1: Bouclier ralentisseur (Slowing Shield). Adds a slowing effect to the protection.
• Star Power 2: Bouclier solaire (Solar Shield). +2,000 HP of shield. On a Brawler whose base health bar is the shortest in the game, that number isn't a bonus: it's a doubling.

On top of that there's the mechanic of placing a shield on an ally, 2,000 hit points, which is the real reason to play her.

One warning, though: several of Wendy's numerical values circulate in two different versions depending on whether they come from English-language pre-release datamines or the official French patch notes. The figures above are the ones that match between the two. For everything else — the exact firing rate of the Hair Dryer, the precise duration of the dome — wait to read it in-game rather than copying a table found online.

Why 75% reduction isn't the same thing as a big shield

This is the point most players will miss in the first few days, and it completely changes how you should place the Protective Dome.

A classic shield has a fixed value: 2,000 HP of shield absorbs 2,000 damage, whether that's in one hit or in ten. A percentage reduction, on the other hand, becomes more valuable as incoming damage increases. Against an opponent hitting for 1,000, it saves 750. Against an ultimate hitting for 6,000, it saves 4,500.

Practical consequence: don't drop the dome preemptively, drop it in reaction to a heavy threat. A dome thrown out "just in case" on an ally taking small chip damage is pure waste. The same dome dropped one second before an enemy ultimate cancels out three-quarters of an action the opposing team spent the whole round charging up.

An equally important corollary: inside a dome, what kills you is repeated small hits. 75% reduction on a rain of low damage still lets a quarter of it through, and with 4,000 base hit points, that quarter is enough.

Which gadget, which star power

The answer depends less on the mode than on your actual role within the team.

If you're playing Wendy as a true support, behind a tank, take the Solar Shield. The extra 2,000 HP isn't there to keep your ally alive longer: it's there so that you survive the inevitable moment when the opponent decides to come after you instead of hitting the wall in front of them. A dead support protects no one, and Wendy is the most cost-effective target in the game for an assassin.

If you're playing her in zone control, in Hot Zone or Gem Grab, the Slowing Shield becomes more interesting. The slow turns protection into a control tool: it doesn't just keep your ally alive, it stops the opponent from crossing the zone. On a narrow map, it's by far the most cost-effective effect.

On the gadget side, Air Blowout is the default choice, for a very simple reason: the Hair Dryer forces you to stay exposed, so you need an emergency exit. The Green Grenade makes sense on maps where you're holding a lane and where movement matters less than denying passage.

Wendy and Hypercharge Fusion: what it really changes

The Windstock season replaced Nano-boosts with Fusions, and the mechanic isn't trivial for a Brawler whose two star powers both revolve around the same idea.

Quick reminder of how it works: in a match with the Fusion modifier, the game takes two of your three power-ups and combines them at random at the start of the match, with both effects applying at the same time. There are 106 Fusions, a set of three per Brawler, spread across four rarities — basic, optimized, cybernetic, quantum.

For Wendy, that means one specific thing: when the draw gives you the combination of her two shield powers, you stack the 2,000 HP from Solar Shield with the slow from Slowing Shield. You're no longer playing the same character. For the duration of that match, you become a support capable of holding a zone all on your own.

The catch is that you don't get to choose. Unlike the Nano-boosts from Season 52, where you selected your effect, the Fusion is randomly drawn. So it's pointless to build a strategy around a combo you'll only get one match out of three. Treat it as a bonus, not a plan.

Should you unlock her now or wait?

That's the real question of the week, and it's purely a matter of economics.

Early access has been open since August 13: it's paid for in gems, and it gets you Wendy before everyone else. Later this month, she'll join the standard unlock track, where she'll be obtainable with coins.

So, three scenarios:

1. You're playing Ranked and pushing to climb right now. Paying is a reasonable call. A freshly released Mythic support is consistently underrated by opponents for one to two weeks, and the information advantage is real.
2. You're mainly playing for daily challenges and season progress. Wait. Coins are earned just by playing, and Wendy isn't going anywhere. No limited-time Windstock content requires owning her.
3. You're saving up gems for the Brawl Pass. Don't break into your reserve. Season 53 runs until September 3: the Pass pays off more over time than a ten-day early unlock.

The three early-days mistakes

Playing her on the front line. The Hair Dryer looks like a close-range weapon. It isn't one: with the lowest health bar in the game, every head-on trade is a losing one. Wendy fires from the back line, under cover.

Placing the Protective Dome on yourself out of reflex. The dome is meant to save someone else's play — a gem carrier, a tank pushing through. Used on yourself, it lets you survive an engagement you shouldn't have taken in the first place.

Neglecting the smoothie prices. Windstock's progression runs through the smoothie meter and the sips. A new Brawler doesn't excuse you from filling the gauge, and it's the gauge that funds the rest of your season.