Started playing Rocket League, a popular driving game with elements of soccer? You must’ve noticed there’s room for improvement, and to be fair, there always is. But it’s hard to ask for tips because people underestimate mainstream games and how much time, effort, and skill it takes to excel at them. What they quickly find, as soon as they try replicating what the professional players do, is that Rocket League is not “just chasing the ball around the field”. We’re not like that and are happy to help you transform your playstyle from mindless car racing around to becoming a goal-scoring maestro. Here’s how to get better at Rocket League.
1. Always warm-up
In any professional sport, a warm-up prepares you for the real deal. You’ll see this in streams and hear from professional players in Rocket League. They always spend at least 30 minutes in Free Play or versus bots to get themselves worked up.
2. Practice moves you’re bad at
Whether you like it or not, you already know a crucial tip to improve your skills in Rocket League. Improving upon areas you’re lacking in will lead you to success. Identifying what those are (aerials, car control, dribbling, working as a team, in-air ball control, etc.) taken self-awareness, analysis, and dedication. Learning the new mechanics that are introduced is also vital.
3. Refrain from showing off
Just because a move looks cool and makes you beam with pride, doesn’t mean it’s useful. Believe us, other players won’t care that the trick was neat when you lose the match.
4. Pay attention to rotating
This is one of the most important skills to have outside of 1v1 games. We’re referring to the rotations, e.g. which player goes where during the game. Even if everyone’s first instinct is to run after the ball and score, not everyone is in an ideal position. Realizing that some players need to act as goalkeepers, other need to distract the opponents or crash into them (“demolition”) is pivotal to a successful game.
5. Try a different Game Mode
The variety of Game Modes available in-game is what adds versatility and makes Rocket League so great. Try your hand in 1v1 (against better players, preferably), 2v2, 3v3, Chaos (4v4), or Hoops. You can even try your hand in custom modes such as Boomer Mode, which boosts speed, reduces car weight, strength, and bounciness, and adds an unlimited boost.
6. Try different Steam workshops
Players have the ability to create custom maps and obstacle courses and upload them on Steam. You can then browse, download, and test them. Even the freestyle maps can teach you something, such as car control.
7. Watch your replays
At the end of the match, you get offered an option to save a replay. Since it uses game files to generate a replay afterward and isn’t a video, each match will be approximately 1.25 to 1.5 MB in size. What we’re hinting at is that you can afford to save (almost) every match. Additionally, you can use Director Mode to change camera angles, focus players, and watch the match frame-by-frame. Spotting and correcting your own mistakes directly is one of the best ways to get better at Rocket League, no doubt.
The files have a .replay extension and are located in the following location on PC: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Rocket League\TAGame\Demos
8. Watch replays of RLCS or pro players individually
The RLCS (Rocket League Championship Series) is held every year. Yes, watching won’t translate into in-game skills immediately. But you can certainly learn a lot from watching high-level plays, especially about teamwork and tactics. If you want to see individual games by the best players, there are websites dedicated to uploading replays, one of which is Ballchasing.com. This adds the benefit of using app tools such as Positioning and Heatmaps.
9. Change your camera settings
You can play around with this yourself, or copy camera settings used by Rocket League professionals. Always give it a few games to either get adjusted or decide to move on.
10. Become a master in ball control
Controlling the ball in this soccer-like drifting game is fundamental. Tricks with it, such as bouncing the ball on top of your car (car’s “nose”) while dribbling the opponents, can take hundreds of hours to master but are a great skill to commit to. You can do it in Free Play or download a Steam workshop map. We also recommend counting the times you bounced it successfully, as setting new records can boost your morale.
11. Learn to half-flip
This is a move that, once mastered, can correct mistakes on-the-go. We’re referring to the movement also called “flip canceling”. It happens when you dodge forward or backward and push the analog stick or Up/Down arrow in the opposite direction. You can then boost forward from a backflip or vice versa. However, you’re still flipped upside down, so you need to use an air roll left/right to rotate the right way up after you cancel the boost.
12. Disable Unlimited Boost in Free Play
We know we mentioned playing on servers with Unlimited Boost in tip #2. However, at some point, you have to take the training wheels off. Disabling this feature forces you to adapt and pay better attention to how you use speed and momentum. Also, it’ll teach you to micro-manage boost so you don’t use it up in bursts. That reminds us – don’t be greedy with boost orbs. There’s a limited number of them, and they should be shared with teammates almost equally. You should give the largest share to the MVP, obviously.
13. Change your Battle-Car
There are so many Common-type vehicles to choose from, let alone Rare, Premium, Very Rare, Import, Exotic, etc. There’s no best car, only what “best” feels to you. Switch things up can be a big deal since even a temporary change can help you regain enthusiasm. In the best-case scenario, you’ll find a new favorite vehicle body.
14. Play in a league or tournament
Fighting weaker players means there’s no challenge and impedes your learning process. So, what better way to get motivated than playing in a tournament or league online or offline? It doesn’t have to be a high-stakes one, as long as you’re under pressure to succeed.
15. Change your key binds
The default Rocket League key configurations for gaming controllers and gaming mice/keyboards are comfortable for most gamers. However, that’s still not everyone, and Rocket League offers a lot of controls that aren’t even bound! What we’re saying is, go through the list of controls and alter them to fit your playstyle and habits.
16. Feign/fake your moves effectively
Just like in every sport (or war), playing mind games with the opponent can lead to easy goals. This is particularly useful if the opponent is aggressive, cocky, and reckless. Often, the best play is to stay calm and watch for kinks in their armor. For example, pretend you’re going to score then abruptly stop. As they jump to defend, you can casually score a goal with them behind you.
17. Use BakkesMod
This is a Rocket League mod that injects into the game executable and creates training scenarios using game files. Those can help you hit redirects, passes, rebounds, and score goals over and over until you master the movements.
18. Hire a Rocket League coach
Employing an experienced coach is a foolproof way for getting better at Rocket League. However, it’s not for everyone, since it requires a financial commitment. On the positive side, long gone are the days of in-person coaching that require travel. You can now get a personal coach online or pay a one-time-fee for/subscribe to different Rocket League master courses.