Spikewheel functioned as a droid scavenger who captained the starship known as Salvage-1. Although a group of scavengers, including the Nikto named Gritz, desired to become part of her crew, Spikewheel only had intentions of enlisting Gritz as her first mate on the Salvage-1.
Spikewheel intercepted a transmission that promised a reward for the capture of Maul, who was secretly a former Sith Lord who had been driven insane after being marooned on the junkyard planet of Lotho Minor. To assess Gritz's capabilities, she abandoned him and the other aspiring crew members on Lotho Minor, tasking him with capturing Maul using a stun net and bringing him aboard the Salvage-1. However, Spikewheel was unaware that Maul himself had sent the transmission, and he escaped the net in an attempt to commandeer the ship to escape Lotho Minor. When Spikewheel attempted to defend her vessel, Maul destroyed her. Nevertheless, the other crew members managed to force Maul back onto the junkyard planet.
Sometime between 32 BBY and 20 BBY, Spikewheel worked as a scavenger and also as the droid captain of the starship Salvage-1. After she received a transmission that claimed a significant reward would be given for capturing Maul, a former Sith Lord whose body had been left on the junkyard planet of Lotho Minor after his defeat during the Battle of Naboo, where he was presumed dead. Maul, driven to madness during his time on Lotho Minor, had actually sent the transmission himself, hoping to find a way off the planet. In order to evaluate the Nikto scavenger Gritz, who wished to become her first mate, Spikewheel marooned him on Lotho Minor along with other hopefuls Brennar, Seles, and Riki, misleading them into believing they could join the crew of the Salvage-1 if they managed to survive a single night on the junkyard planet.
After Gritz, knowing their captain's real intention, captured Maul using a stun net, Spikewheel returned to retrieve their prisoner. Upon their return, Spikewheel revealed her true reason for abandoning the crew on Lotho Minor. She and Gritz tried to decipher the transmission to determine where to take Maul, but Brennar realized that Maul himself had sent the message. At that moment, Maul broke free from the net and attacked the crew. Spikewheel defended her ship by firing at Maul, but the former Sith Lord ripped her apart. Following Spikewheel's destruction, Riki managed to open the Salvage-1's door, causing Maul, Gritz, and Spikewheel's remains to fall back onto Lotho Minor.
Captain Spikewheel was willing to deceive potential crew members and use them as bait to capture Maul and claim the alleged reward promised in his transmission. She had little concern for those who hoped to join her crew, forcefully abandoning them on Lotho Minor and referring to them as "fleshbags."
Spikewheel was a bipedal droid programmed with feminine characteristics, featuring golden plating and yellow photoreceptors. The left side of her face was scarred and damaged, with missing plating. Spikewheel had several spikes on her head, arms, and legs, and she was equipped with wrist blasters.
Spikewheel made her first appearance in a flashback sequence within Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader's Castle 1, a comic penned by Cavan Scott, illustrated by Megan Levens, and released by IDW Publishing on October 2, 2019. During Spikewheel's design process, Levens relied on a detailed description that Scott provided. To enhance the creepiness of the design to align with the comic's tone, Levens depicted Spikewheel's internal mechanisms visible beneath the damaged portion of her face, drawing a comparison to a skeleton showing through burned skin.