Zelda Stamina Wheel Chart

I have been playing Zelda: Breath of the wild a lot these days and I LOVE the game. Considered one of the BEST video games all time, BOTW is beautifully designed and offers a lot of entertainment. Don’t freak out yet, Chandoo.org hasn’t suddenly branched into a video gaming blog. Instead, I am here to talk about Stamina Wheel Chart.

Stamina what?!?

In the breath of the wild video game, Link the lead character has stamina. As he runs, climbs, flies or swims the stamina runs out. Link can have up to 300% stamina. To show how much stamina he has, Nintendo uses Stamina Wheel. You can see a sample of the 300% stamina wheel running out slowly as Link is flying to the right.

I thought it would be cool to recreate this stamina wheel in Excel. It is a kinda sorta gauge chart with ability to go up to 300%. See the demo below and read on to learn how to make this in Excel.

So how to make the Stamina Wheel Chart?

This chart works well when you want to compare actual vs. target (or budget vs. actual) performance where there is a possibility of >100% achievement.

Imagine you have data like this in 2 cells. You can easily calculate Pct in the third cell.

Quickly calculate these six values using simple IF formulas. The filled portion will be either 1 or fraction depending on the Pct. The gap will be difference from 1. See below list for sample formulas

• Circle 1 Filled: =MIN(pct, 1)
• 2 Filled =IF(pct>1,MIN(pct-1,1),0)
• 3 Filled =IF(pct>2,MIN(pct-2,1),0)
• Gap =1-Filled for all circles

Now that our data prep is done, let’s go with making some charts.

Step 1: Make donut chart from our 3 circles

The first step for making stamina wheel chart is to create donut chart from our calculated values in Table 2 above.

We get this. (Note if your donuts look different, go to Chart Design ribbon and click on “Switch row / column button”.

Step 2: Convert inner circle to Pie Chart

Right click on circle 1 and select “Change series chart type” option. Now set up the options such that,

• Circle 1 should be pie chart
• Circle 2 & 3 should be donut charts, but on secondary axis.

Our stamina wheel chart at this stage looks like,

Step 3: Color everything

We want to set “Filled” portions in one color and “Gap” portions in white color.

Carefully select individual points on the chart (there are total 6 points) and color them one at a time. You may need to change “Actual” value to see the gap portions as some points will have zero for them.

We will end up with this chart.

Step 4: Clean up and Label

We are nearly done. Remove any unnecessary chart elements (title, legend etc.)

For label, Select the chart, add a circle shape to it. Move it so that it is centered on the chart. Fill the circle with white color and link it to a cell that has the Pct completion value.

Our final stamina wheel chart looks like this:

Stamina Wheel Chart – Video Tutorial

I made a video tutorial explaining my obsession with Breath of the Wild and how to make this chart in Excel. Watch it below if you need help. You can also see this my YouTube Channel.

Download Zelda Stamina Wheel Chart – Excel Template

If you want your own stamina wheel for a presentation or fund-raiser, just download it from here. Change the “Actual” and “Target” values and your stamina wheel will be ready.

More ways to visualize Budget vs. Actual data

Stamina wheel is a type of gauge chart. Gauges or speedometer charts have a lot of critics. That said, they are also very familiar metaphors. If you are looking for some inspiration and alternatives for boring budget vs. actual charts, then consider the stamina wheel. It is fun conversation starter.

If you want some alternatives to stamina wheel, check out below charts:

• Thermometer chart – ever green way to visualize budget vs. actual data
• Beautiful Budget vs. Actual chart – you got to see this to believe the hype
• Target vs. Actual – Biker on a hill chart – a biker chasing the target, what else I can say
• Speedometer / gauge chart – simpler version of stamina wheel.

Links to improve your Excel Stamina

Get full stamina wheel + bonus with this AWESOME Excel course. Learn everything about data analysis, charting and dashboards from the comfort of your couch or office chair.

Click here to know more about Excel School.

PS: The link to Breath of the Wild game uses my Amazon affiliate code. If you end up buying anything from Amazon after clicking it, I get to make few cents to buy my next game.