Rocket League is Psyonix's timeless masterpiece that seems to be growing faster than ever, despite the game being launched over four years ago.
It exists at the intersection of football, combat sports and rocket science, which is probably why beginners find it a little daunting to get the hang of.
That said, even the professional players still dedicate hundreds of hours every month in a bid to self-improve, so you shouldn’t think of yourself as a lost cause.
Anyway, if you’re a beginner looking to hone your skills and pick up a few tips then look no further – here we cover the core skills, tips and tricks to get you off your feet.
Air Roll
It is one of the most important controls in the game. It's a button that allows you change from "Yaw" (steering) mid-air, to "Roll" (rolling like a barrel) mid-air. By default it is bound to the same button as powerslide, which is "X" on Xbox controllers, "Square" on PlayStaiton controllers, and "Shift" on Keyboard/Mouse. Use this to always land on your wheels when you get sent in the air. I would practice this in Free Play a little bit. Just jump and spin your car holding the Air Roll button. Drive up the side of a wall, most the way to the top, and Air Roll to land on your wheels. Drive up the slope in the back of the net, and when you fall upside-down, Air Roll to land on your wheels.
Boost
The small boost pads spread around the middle of the field give 12% boost every pickup. It takes 4 seconds for the boost pad to respawn for more boost.The bigger boost on the corner and sides of the map, with a sphere floating above it, give 100% boost. These take 10 seconds to respawn. Their names aren't set specifically. In general, many people call the 12% little pickups "pads", "pennies", "12 pickup", "small boost", "Welfare",etc.
Camera Setting
Change from the default camera settings. It is recommended to raise your Field of View from the default "90" to at least 95 or higher. I personally recommend anywhere between the 100 and 110 range. You will be able to see more things on the edges of your screen. As well, this "distorts" your screen. This distortion can be good, as it changes "depth perception". The distortion pulls the objects closer to the center of your screen. It also makes them smaller, the closer it gets to the center, so it can fit more vision on the sides. Because of it shrinking the size closer to the center, certain distance points may appear further away. This is helpful because by increase the "distance" relative to your screen, you might be able to see velocity differences with more ease. If you switch in-between all of the images linked above, you can see how "distance" feels different between the car and the ball.
As well, turn off "Camera Shake". It might not seem like a big deal, but the instability can and will throw you off in many scenarios, so it's best to not let it hinder you. Here is a side-by-side view of Camera Shake (left), and no Camera Shake (right). Camera Shake is more than just jumping. It's for many actions. Boosting, jumping, landing, contact with the ball, contact with another car, and contact with walls,etc.
Defense
There’s an old football quote here in America (that's American football, not European football) that goes, “Offense wins games, defense wins championships.” The same can be applied to Rocket League. You might be able to with a solid offense but you’ll be more likely to win with a great defense. Defense isn’t a one man game in Rocket League either. At the lower levels, you might see someone sitting back playing as the keeper but that is not a beneficial strategy. Everyone should focus on learning defense in the game because you’ll never know when you’ll be the last man back and have to make a save to win the game.
A good rule of thumb to follow when in the net is to be parallel with the goal, on the goal line, with your car facing the side the ball is coming from. If you backup into the net with your car facing the back of it then it is a lot more difficult to go side to side to block a goal. Being parallel you can easily drive forward and block most shots. Training is a great way to practice some good goaltending. There are a lot of great uncomfortable save packs out there that really have some odd angles and put you into awkward positions to make saves that will get you used to seeing anything that could come at you. The main thing to take away from this is that everyone should learn how to defend because every will have to at one point or another in a game.
Rotations
Rotations come into play with defense as well. You don’t want to constantly chase the ball because it doesn’t allow for the rest of your team to help out. You want to try to make something happen then as soon as you lose possession and cannot help the play anymore you should circle back, grab some boost, and let a teammate come up for their chance. This applies on both offense and defense so lets take a look at a basic rotation pattern for both.
On offense, you usually have someone middle waiting for a pass (1), someone in the corner trying to center the ball to them (2), and someone back by the midfield waiting to stop the ball if it gets cleared (3). In a perfect world, what would happen is 2 would center it and 1 would score. If that doesn’t happen and 2 can’t get it out of the corner 1 should go back to 3, 3 move up to 2, and 2 should go to the middle and become 1 and wait for the center.
On defense, you have a player in the corner trying to clear the ball (1), a player in net for any shots on goal (2), and a player behind net to tend to any shots off the backboard (3). Again, if 1 cannot clear the ball they should fall back to 3, 2 should move up to 1, and 3 should move up to 2. This keeps everyone in a useful position and will make it very difficult for the opposing team to score if done properly.
Hopefully this gives you a great base to start your journey to becoming a better Rocket League player. If you have trouble completing certain modes or challenges, you can come to https://www.igvault.com/Rocket-League-Items for cheap boosting services. If you wanna Buy or Sell Rocket League Items , Keys and Crates to help you level up fast, it is highly recommended to Rocket League Trading from a reliable store. Here you can choose from a bunch of professional game masters of in-demanded games to play the game and help you rank up fast.
