Guide: 9 Straightforward Tips to Help You Get Started in Rocket League

Rocket League offers plenty of fun and giggles, but it can be daunting for new players to enter into the fray when it's been out for so long on other systems. It's easy to think you'll never get the hang of it and give up before you've even managed your first bicycle hit.

Well, we want to put a stop to all that, and so through conversing with long-time Rocket League players we've compiled a list of tips and tricks that should help you break off those stabilisers once and for all.

If your teammates are ahead of you tackling the ball, don’t rush straight in

It can be tempting to try and keep your mitts on the objective as often as possible, but there’s no sense in all of you congregating around one area at any one time. Keep your distance and instead try and defend or poise yourself for a potential shot at the goal.

During kickoff, if you’re not the closest to the ball, hang back

If you’re not closest to the ball, you’re simply not going to be able to hit it before your closer teammate or the opposing team do. Either reverse to keep an eye on the goal, or position yourself elsewhere so that more of the pitch is covered.

Boosting everywhere is impractical and inefficient, try somersaulting instead

By tapping B to jump and then B again whilst holding up on the left stick, you can perform a very effective somersault that will give you a tremendous burst of speed. Be warned, though, that this will reduce your turning control to basically zero, so it’s best to only use this when you need to cover a straight line.

Use the quick chat shortcuts to communicate with your team

Using the D-Pad allows you to send quick chat messages to your teammates and the other players. These can be extremely useful to let them know that perhaps you’re going to hang back and defend so they can focus on offensive manoeuvres without worrying.

Try toggling ball focus off when you’re in goal

Clicking in the right stick will give you full control over the camera rather than tracking the ball automatically. When in goal this not only allows you to keep an eye out for any foes that might otherwise be outside your field of view, but also allows to you have a better understanding of which way you’re facing. This seems simple, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to do, and being in goal is when you really need to be on highest alert.

Play through the tutorials, there’s loads of them

They’re easy to miss, but absolutely essential if you’re a newcomer. There are tutorials for basic moves, advanced moves, and more general guides for attacking, defending, and aerial play. If you think you can skip these, think again.

Rebind your buttons to suit your preference

If you head into the options menu you can re-assign any function to any button you wish. This is especially useful for the power slide move, which for some reason is controlled with the Y button by default. This limits your play and prevents you from power sliding whilst boosting, so by slapping it onto the L button instead you can leave your right thumb free to boost, jump, and look behind you with reckless abandon.

Increase the field of view to see more at once

The typical 90º view that the game issues as standard is alright, but by increasing the FOV you can simply see more. It’s a no-brainer.

Most importantly, don’t just rush after the ball

This is arguably the most important thing to keep in mind whenever you’re playing. Just charging after the ball in the vain hope that you might hit it is ludicrous. Instead it’s far better to keep your distance and plan your attack before attempting to make a shot; you’ll do just fine.

If you're a new player and you've found any of these tips useful, please let us know in the comments below.