How to Get Started in Rocket League

What Are the Rules of Rocket League?

Although Rocket League appears simple, its gameplay can become extremely nuanced. Games are played in five-minute matches, with barely any downtime. The clock only stops when a goal is scored, and after a quick replay, another kickoff begins. 

At the end of five minutes, the win goes to the highest scoring team, or in the case of a tie, the winner of a sudden-death overtime.

Action is fast and frantic, but the general idea is to work together with your teammates to score goals using your cars.

This can be done by performing stunts like boost jumps, handbrake turns and flips to both assist and score goals.

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Who Makes Rocket League?

Rocket League is developed and published by San Diego-based Psyonix, run under the stewardship of Epic Games. The concept of Rocket League first arose as a mod for Epic’s popular FPS Unreal Tournament 2003, which inspired an unsuccessful spinoff release of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars.

Fortunately, despite the lack of sales, the general idea was sound enough to warrant a sequel. And so, in 2015, Rocket League was born.

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How Much is Rocket League?

Rocket League is free-to-play, so does not require any financial outlay to access or be competitive. Instead, the game opts for optional DLC content including car skins, car livery decals and player banners.

Being free-to-play also gives Rocket League unparalleled accessibility, especially as it’s available across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Epic Games Store) and Nintendo Switch (players need to link to or create an Epic Games account for PC access).

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How Popular is Rocket League?

Rocket League is massively popular around the globe. The game has dedicated esports events featuring prize pools in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and is even the game of choice for this year’s FIFAe World Cup, replacing EA SPORTS FIFA 23 thanks to FIFA and EA SPORTS’ licensing agreement lapsing.

So becoming a professional Rocket League player for a top esports team is a viable career choice!

Where Can I Get DLC Cars for Rocket League?

Rocket League DLC can be purchased via the Epic Game Store on PC, or on console via the in-game Item Shop. All DLC features licensed content nowadays and is usually only available for a limited time. Players who purchase DLC before the deadline can still use it in future, making it imperative to pick up content promptly.

How Much Does Rocket League DLC normally cost?

Rocket League DLC can cost anywhere between 100 - 3,000 in-game credits. You can buy credits from the Item Shop. Costs for credits are below:*

 ●       £3.99 = 500 credits

●       £7.99 = 1,100 credits

●       £19.49 = 3,000 credits

●       £38.99 =  6,500 credits

Rocket League’s ‘Rocket Pass’ allows players to unlock items for free in-game simply by playing and achieving certain goals. The ‘Premium Rocket Pass’ is a paid-for version of this and introduces more exclusive items and bonuses, costing 1,000 in-game credits.

The ‘Rocket Pass Premium Bundle’ offers even more for players, but costs 3,000 in-game credits. New players can still play and compete in Rocket League without these extra fripperies.

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What is the Best Car Model to Use in Rocket League?

There are six car models (also known as ‘hitboxes’) to choose from in Rocket League, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. These are the Merc, Breakout, Dominus, Octane Plank and Hybrid.

Beginners can’t go wrong with the Octane thanks to its all-round ability - it’s also available as one of three default cars when you start the game. Handy.

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How to Get Better at Rocket League

Use Rocket League’s Training mode to get on top of the basics of the game: boosting, jumping and controlling the ball. This also extends to deciding which control method you want to use initially, although gamepads are the number one choice for most players. 

If you can, observe the best Rocket League players in the world and copy their strategies: watch how they manage their boost during a game, where they position themselves and how they change their tactics.

Playing Rocket League casually with friends is a good way of developing your Rocket League skills in an unpressured environment, ideally using voice chat to coordinate strategies. Multiplayer Rocket League can even be played locally with friends via split-screen.

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The game is heavily physics-based, so there’s no substitute for hours of practice to help familiarise yourself with the intricacies of gameplay. Developing muscle memory for performing complex mechanical techniques is the key to advancement up the ranks.

Use ‘Free Play’ to see how different approaches result in different outcomes. For example, how does the ball react to boosted and unboosted hits? How does the ball react to the surrounding environment, and how can you use that to your advantage in a match?

Training mode allows players to tackle specific scenarios to help improve their play. This is an absolute must for new players to complete, as it gradually introduces new techniques without overwhelming newbies with superfluous information.

Playing offline against AI is also useful before you head online for PVP games but is no substitute for battling more cunning human players. 

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Rocket League: Playing Online

To play competitive online matches, Rocket League players must first reach level 20. This can be achieved by playing ‘Casual’ online games. The XP gained from these - obtained from scoring goals, winning matches etc - will help you level up.

Purchasing the ‘Premium Rocket Pass’ also boosts the XP gained from matches, so is worth considering if you want to fast-track to competitive online play.

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Rocket League: Beginner’s Tips

One general tip is to slow the pace of the Training mode down by decreasing the ‘Game speed’ slider in the ‘Game settings’ menu. This will help you fine-tune your techniques and learn advanced techniques at your own pace. 

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Another useful hint for newbies is to use the ‘Ball Camera’ option in-game. This will focus the camera on the ball only, and stop players from being distracted by peripheral actions or shaky camera effects.

Adjusting the camera’s field of view via the options menu is another useful tip, as it increases the visibility of the whole pitch. This will in turn help players form goal scoring strategies.

Finally, players can also receive some help from our specialised, AI-powered coaching tool to help improve their Rocket League skills. The waitlist is open now for those wishing to try out the free utility (paid tiers are available too offering more features and functionality).

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Click here to join the trophi.ai Rocket League waitlist!

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*Prices correct 29/7/24