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Beginner’s guide for Rocket League!

Rocket League, despite being one of the most fun multiplayer experiences around, can also be an overwhelming experience to newcomers, especially when you’re playing against a team that knows what they’re doing. Although Rocket League appears to be simplistic, it has a surprising level of Depth and once mastered, you will be scoring goals in no time.

In this guide you will learn:
– The basics of the game
– Attacking
– Defending
– 5 Winning Formulas

The Basics
For those new to Rocket league, it’s basically, a football game with cars. There’s a variety of vehicles to choose from, all of which can be customised. Whilst you can play 1vs1 there are also 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4 game modes (and more cars mean more chaos).

You don’t just drive around in Rocket League; you can make your car jump, do flips and barrel rolls. There are plenty of advanced techniques to master, but since you’re just starting out, getting to grips with the conventional front flip and jump is all you need for now. Jumping is vital for trying to gain control of the ball, defending and of course shooting, double pressing the jump button causes you to front flip and with the correct, timing can be very effective.

“Rocket League” are a really fast sports game, so you can´t be slow in your actions and commands.

The arenas are fairly large, but you can cover ground quickly by collecting boost power-ups that are located all over the arena. These boost power-ups are best used when charging down the ball, going for a shot or getting back to defend your own goal. You collect them by simply driving over one of the many pressure plates in the arena, most of them slightly increase your boost bar. Others can increase it to 100% – these particular power-ups are Orb-like in appearance and are extremely useful!

One thing that you will need to get to grips with is the ball itself as it’s not like your conventional football. The ball can be quite floaty and sometimes lingers in the air, other times it can travel at speed; this can be a gift or a curse which can take a while to get used to. During matches, it can be difficult to track the ball, switching to the alternate camera view can help you to keep focused on the ball. There’s also a variety of options in the menu that let you change the field of view, height, distance and angle to help you find your perfect balance.

Attacking
There’s a variety of ways where a goal can be achieved, it can be from the first touch, set up by team mates or a dribble from one end of the field to the other. Sometimes it’s best to back away from the chaos and wait for an opportunity. This is usually ideal for goal poaching and capitalizing on a fumbled ball (it’s best to have 100% boost on these occasions). It doesn’t all need to be about power though; light touches on the ball can be all you need, follow it up with a forward flip to secure a goal.

Setting up goals for team mates is quite simple. One of the most common tactics is trying to bounce the ball off the wall into the centre for a striker to finish.

Defending
Defending is just as vital as attacking. If you spend the entire match just chasing the ball like a Greyhound chasing a rabbit, you’ll likely concede and feel bad. Defending is crucial, sometimes you are the one thing stopping the other team scoring in the last vital seconds of a match. You can also support team members in various ways, for example, you can put your foot down and explode a rival team member eliminating them for a few seconds which can give team mates the time needed to counter attack.

If you don´t have a good defense, then you´re going to lose a lot of games in “Rocket League” for sure.

Sticking to the goal line is a simple tactic; playing keeper might not be as exciting as attacking the ball, but losing a match isn’t much fun either. Playing in-goal is vital, especially once you’re skilled enough to pull off acrobatic jumps, making a critical save with seconds on the clock leaves you feeling great. Playing with a rock-solid defense is one of the key ways to frustrate opponents.

5 Winning Formulas:

– Buddy up

Playing with friends in Rocket League can make all the difference, not only is it more fun, it’s easier in making offensive and defensive runs, setting up goals and tackling other players. Being able to verbally communicate with team members and assign your own roles will help you to develop a winning team.

– Don’t be greedy

During kick-off, don’t all make a B-line for the ball because you’ll likely get in each other’s way. At times, it will feel like you’re fighting both your team mates and opponents for possession, just keep a calm head and if your pal looks like he’s about to score leave him to it.

– Be heard

No headset? No problem. You can communicate to other players by using the D-pad which brings up a variety of quick chat messages. Use them to congratulate a team-mate, apologise for a miss or brag to your opponents.

If you’re up for some tomfoolery, you can even type your own messages in the chat box, so you can tell everyone how awesome you are. For maximum effect do it to annoy your opponents when you’re six-nil up.

– Beware of the bots

When someone drops out a PvP match, they’re likely to be replaced by a bot rather than another player. Bots are usually represented by a single name such as ‘Myrtle’ or ‘Squall’. They can also be very difficult to play against due to the fact that they lack human error and are extremely precise. They do keep the flow of the match going, but they can also turn the score table on its head.

– Practice makes perfect

During your first few games, you may have a few losses but don’t let that deter you. Wins come with practice. Once you’ve nailed the basics you can then get some wins under your belt and focus on unlocking all the extras the game has to offer. If you’re still struggling, the game has some great tutorials to help you harness your skills.

Sharn Daniels
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @SharnOfTheDEAD