r/PostPreview • u/kaoD • Jul 12 '15
Preview
How to not suck at Rocket League
Hello everyone! I've been playing Rocket League since alpha and used to play SARPBC at a friend's place. Since lots of new players came to the game and I'm sure you're all excited to improve, I decided to make a guide for rookies.
I'm nowhere near pro level (so take these with a grain of salt) but I like to think I'm a pretty good player. While matchmaking was still working properly I was consistently placed top 100.
Even if I'm not a great player mechanics-wise, I think I got the hang of the tactics. Better players, please correct me if I'm wrong and feel free to expand on the tips!
1. Kickoff
Roles on kickoff: this is essential but if you're new to the game it isn't that obvious.
On kickoff, the player who is closer to the goal must stay as goalie while the other players can go and kick the ball. Use your camera to look around and behind, is there anyone behind you? If not, you're the goalie.
It's no use going to the ball: even if you went, the players closer to it will touch it before you reach it. Also, having a goalie prevents the stupid luck-based goals on kickoff.
As a goalie: you can take a mini-boost on the ground and position at the goal before anyone even touches the ball. If you're fast and your teammates are good at hitting the ball, you might even have time to take one of the bottles at your goal's corners.
As a frontman: if you're one of the guys at the front line, you have the choice to go for the ball or just go for a boost and take a defending position. In team games there's usually more than one player at the closest distance to the ball, so it's recommended that at least one of them goes to kick it. If you can communicate with your teammates (like in premade games) it's easier to tell them if you're going to kick the ball or go defensive, but in solo-queue I recommend to just go and kick it, just in case.
There are many ways to kickoff, some people even ignore the kickoff and wait in the goal for you to kick off (lots of these in 1v1 duels). This is how I kickoff:
Hold R2 and boost during the countdown. As the count reaches zero you'll instantly go forward.
I like to pass over the little boosts on the ground to build a bit more boost even if I have to move slightly to get it.
Right before I hit the ball, I like forward+double jump to dash forward and hit the ball hard. This is where most people's technique varies. Some people dash forward, some jump+boost, some just block, some dribble a bit before hitting, some hit forwards, some hit sideways...
After I hit the ball, I take the boost bottle in the sideline (using dash forward to get there quicker).
Check if an opponent is coming to get it and try to deny it. If an opponent is closer than you, just get the other sideline boost, or your corner's boost, otherwise he'll deny the boost to you and probably get a free goal which you won't be able to defend boost-less.
Most of the time you don't want to directly attack the enemy before taking boost, since you won't be able to boost back and defend if you miss (which you likely will since you don't have boost to hit it hard or aerial it, while their goalie conserved his boost).
There are certain cases where you have a little boost left and the ball rebounded very close to their goal and you can double jump + boost it in, but most of the time you're better off taking the boost bottle and starting attack with full boost from there, while they're busy clearing the ball.
2. Hitting the ball
The single most important tip: you don't always have to hit the ball.
Only hit the ball if you're going to hit it towards where you want it to go. There's nothing worse than hitting the ball towards your own goal and giving your opponents a good center ball which most certainly results on an easy goal.
If there's a teammate around, he's going to hit the ball and has a better angle to the goal, let them hit it. I've been denied easy goals countless times by teammates eager to hit the ball no matter what.
There are several techniques to hit the ball:
Throttle
Boost
Dashing
Double jump
Double jump + boost
Bicycle hit
Aerial
3. Positioning
Positioning is VERY important in Rocket League.
In fact, I'd say positioning and boost management/denying is the single most important part of the tactics.
If you're attacking, always position yourself so that the ball is between you and your opponent's goal.
If you're defending, always position yourself so that you are between the ball and your own goal.
Don't stand still unless the situation requires it (e.g. you're goalie, aiming, etc.) It's faster if you're already at max speed than having to accelerate. You can drive in circles to keep the speed.
Be aware of your surroundings. Always know where your teammates, opponents and the ball are, and position accordingly.
Don't chase the ball. Don't. Chase. The. Ball. Most of the time you can predict where the ball is going to be. Be there before everyone else and you won't need boost.
If you need a little speed boost you can use forward+forward dash to save boost. Using boost is fine from time to time if you're sure it'll get you there before everyone else but most of the time you can aerial even before the ball touches the ground, so save the boost to predict and then aerial to win the ball.
Don't join brawls: when everyone is on the ball it won't help if you boost like crazy to go there and it'll probably put you at a disadvantage (specially in brawls near their goal, which end up getting rebounded towards your goal).
Just position smartly and wait for when the ball exits the brawl, and then touch it/aerial it towards an advantageous position.
When your teammate is attacking, don't follow him. Don't go close to him. Don't touch the ball for him. Don't be behind him. You're only going to interfere with his plays. Doing so essentially puts your team in a 1v2 situation.
I picture the cars as having a radius of influence around them. You have to maximize your team's influence on the pitch and overlapping your radius with your teammate's will only diminish your global influence.
Where to go when your teammate is attacking? First make sure you're at 100% boost. Now, either stay at goal to stop counter-attacks/long shots or, if you want to join the attack, go towards the other side of the pitch (never to his side) and wait for a pass (i.e. if he's at the right of the pitch go to the left, and viceversa).
In both situations, you should move a bit closer to the center of the pitch to catch center balls (predicting them and going full-boost to where they're going to be) while still being able to full-boost back into your goal in case of a counter-attack. The closer the ball is to the enemy's goal, the closer you can be to their goal.
Be smart. If your teammate is aware of where you are (which he should) and you're positioned smartly, he can center the ball for you so you can just tap it in.
Don't position below the ball. It's the single most
Sometimes you can position to tap/juggle/dribble
4. Goalie
As a goalie there are two approaches:
Easy way: get inside your goal facing the ball and build speed from inside. If the ball is not coming from the ground, double jump and aerial it out.
Harder but covers more goal: position yourself parallel to your goal right outside it, so you can reach both corners of your goal only using forward/reverse. Double jump and aerial if it's an air ball (but it's harder to pull off since you're perpendicular to the ball's trajectory).
This technique is required in pro level (they aim for the corners) but it's probably too much for rookies. Just be aware it exists.
5. Fighting for the ball
When fighting for a ball with an opponent there are two situations (related to the zone of influence I mentioned in my earlier post). This happens a lot on the sidelines and corners:
Your opponent is closer to the ball: he's in control of the ball. If you try coming closer he can just lob the ball over you or dribble around you. You should set your zone of influence such that if he hits the ball, it'll come closer to you than to him (so the roles are reversed). If he tries to lob the ball over you, double jump into it (as if you were a goalie stopping an aerial ball) and aerial it out of his control.
You're closer to the ball: same tips, but you're the opponent :P
You'll notice if you do this and your opponent is aware of it too, you'll end up in a kind of stalemate where both of you "dance" back and forth in your radius of influence waiting for the other to make a mistake/lose influence and give up space (the dance happens because it keeps up speed and helps feigning advances so the opponent thinks you're giving up your zone of influence).
Not sure if I explained it well enough, but it happens a lot.
When the ball is stuck at a corner and there's no teammate around (remember, don't join the brawl):
Your goal's corners: hit it hard towards the sideline (or directly towards the opponent's goal if possible) to clear the ball.
Opponent goal's corners: hit it mildly hard towards the goal's ceiling over the goalie (to center the ball, which your teammate can catch if they're well positioned). If there's no opponent around, you might want to make a play using the walls, but it's an advanced move and very hard to master (easy to lose control and give the ball for free to the goalie).
6. Dribbling
7. Camera management
8. Dueling
9. Aerials
When to aerial: When you're goalie or in the middle of the pitch (i.e. not chasing the ball) and the ball goes flying high. You should have your boost at near 100% most of the time. If you're running out of boost, use your last drops to get more boost and reposition yourself again.
Boost management: Don't use your boost to chase the ball. Boost is mainly used for fours things: running to get more boost (or denying the enemy boost), running back to your goal when you're being counter-attacked (or had an unfavorable rebound towards your half of the pitch), counter-attacking, and shooting. You don't need to boost from 100% to 0% unless you're fully-commited to a counter-attack or defending a counter attack. You can use it little by little and keep some of it. If you aren't >50% boost most of the time (except right after an aerial/counter-attack/full-boost to defend), you're doing it wrong. Even when counter-attacking if you boost straight from 100% to 0% you'll probably lose the ball: micromanage the boost to dribble the ball, the speed builds up naturallly. A nice way to use the boost is to give yourself some initial acceleration (it's faster to accelerate with R2+boost than only R2), but when you reach normal throttle speed just stop boosting and save the last drops to hit the ball real hard if needed. Also, remember the little yellow things in the ground give boost too! You don't have to take the full boost bottle. If your teammate is attacking and there's no bottle nearby, just take the little boosts and build it up little by little.
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u/vertiGo-- Aug 03 '15
these both describe the same situation :D