As of May 2016, I present the techniques I have heard about for Rocket League! More may be developed, some may have been developed but I don’t know about them yet. I am but a Noob, let me know if I’ve missed out on anything. I give credit to JonTark AKA “Shipoops” for helping me with this list.

Basic: Pretty much do the tutorial and play online to pick these up naturally

Jump Double Jump Dodge Hit Dodge Recovery Supersonic Mobility Chip shots Demolitions In goal defending Boost Kick-Off Interference

Medium

Aerial Dodge Hit: You jump once, adjust your angle to fly at the ball, and then use your second jump to dodge and hit the ball. KEEP IN MIND YOU HAVE 1.5 SECONDS TO USE YOUR SECOND JUMP. After that time, you will be left second-jumpless. For this reason players usually use this technique near goals, either to clear the ball from your goal or to smash a winning goal. A very high ball will usually kill the use of your second jump, so think about double jumping at lift-off, or even better, fast aerialing (Advanced). You will constantly be using this technique. After a while, it will seem second nature. Air Roll: SUPER SUPER SUPER IMPORTANT, LEARN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. In the air your car can spin “along it’s z-axis” (blah blah blah, the roof stays facing the same direction but the car’s body spins round and round CW or CCW) but if you hit the Air Roll button, your car will spin “along it’s x-axis” (blah blah blah the car’s nose faces the same direction but the body spins like a bullet). Someone smarter can tell me how to apply the rotation and yaw concept for this technique. The driving force for the importance of this technique is the recovery. Air rolling let’s you always land on all fours, like Avenger’s Superheroes, and this is crucial if you want to stay in the game. Otherwise, you’ll be waddling around until you finally flip upright. All game modes use this technique all the time. Double Jump Aerial: Jump, leave your direction joystick/keys unpressed, jump again. Usually used in quick succession to gain height on your opponent, sometimes used later in an aerial when you realize you need to be higher than expected. This technique is inferior to the fast aerial for gaining height, but it does have it’s uses, specially in goal. If defending in goal, this technique allows you to quickly cover vertical space, but if you tilt up after double jumping you’ll have even more area covered. Useful in all game modes. Boost Management: This is an expansive concept better covered below (thanks to IJx to letting me use this guide even though I never asked for permission [srry you can haz cheezburgerz instead, yes?]). Just three key point. First, ONCE YOU ARE SUPER SONIC (there’s purple air drag shimmering around you and you’re going at your top speed) STOP BOOSTING. You can’t go any faster, and you are just wasting boost. Second, don’t underestimate “charity”. Charity are the boost pickups that DON’T give 100% boost. They’ll actually give you 12% boost, there are a lot more of them than the 100 percenters, they are all over the ground, and they re-spawn a lot more quickly. A noob mistake is, when defending, deviating from course to reach a 100 percenter and THEN defending goal. This is usually an open goal for the opponent. Instead, make a bee-line for the goal, chances are you’ll pick up some charity on the way there. Finally, try to have at least 20 boost at all times. This is just enough to get you moving quickly, get you in the air to defend your goal, or get you in the air for a shot at goal. It’s necessary to learn this technique for all game modes, but the more players in the game, the harder it is to get boost and the more necessary to amnage it wisely.

Super Awesome Post On Boost Management

Block Kick-Off Power Shots Momentum Management Sideways Defending (Scrub Killa Defense) Wall shots Dribbling Rotation

Advanced

Roof Dribbling: Dribbling with the Ball on the roof of your car. This makes you extremely dangerous in the game, since you can quickly double jump to get the ball over an opponent’s car, dodge forward to flick the ball into the goal (hopefully), do a backwards roll to arc the ball way up high, or even do a number of diagonal or sideways rolls for a number of ball passes, shots, and flicks. Definitely a must if you want to progress in 1v1s, very useful (though not completely mandatory) for a 2v2, and rarely seen in high level 3v3, since ball pressuring prevents having space to pull off this trick.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3szyyi/dribbling_101_the_basics_with_your_host_fluid/

Fast Kick-Off: You boost, dodge diagonally forward at an angle, keep boosting, then hope to Gaben you make contact with the ball. I’m not that good at these, so I’m placing tutorials down below. It’s useful in all game modes, you just need to know when to use it. At high enough level, kick-off is a chess game. Sometimes you want fast kick-off so you can go straight into attacking the opponent on their side of the pitch, other times the opposing team is too wary and a fast kick-off is handing them a shot on goal. Use wisely, definitely add to your repertoire.

Wall Defending: Much like Spiderman, your little car (please use the Scarab to complete this pun) is clinging to the wall, then you boost and dodge into the as it goes on target. You can be on the wall to the sides of the goal or even on the wall on top of the goal. Truthfully, this is the worst way to defend. In goal and Sideways goal tending are far more reliable. However, every now and then you’ll be hit, you’ll have whiffed, you’ll SOMETHING and then you find yourself clinging to the wall like a little Scarabman. In these cases tracking of the ball is everything. Usually you’ll have to ride off the wall into the hole that is the goal, and here you lose a majority of mobility. Try to time your jump so that the tip of your car hits the ball. This’ll clear the shot. If you hit the car with your hood, chances are you just did an amazing pass to the opposing team in front of your goal. In this technique, as in most things Rocket League, timing is everything.

Off the Wall Shots: You actually have to jump off the wall, fly to the ball, and then hit it. It’s basically an aerial, but you trade lifting off from the ground to lifting off of the wall. There are many advantages to this technique, with its share of disadvantages. For one, if you are smart, you can use a lot less boost and move much faster than if you lifted off the ground. You can shoot on target surprise shots. You can clear the ball sooner rather than later. However, I’ve found missed off the wall shots often expend loads of time in recovery, not to mention you probably were NOT smart and spent all your boost with this one hit. You rarely use these in 1v1s, since a whiff or even bad hit means you’ve left your goal much too unattended, 2v2s occasionally see these, and 3v3s are all about these wall hits.

Ceiling Double Jump Recovery: Flying to the ceiling, you air roll your car upside down so your wheels actually land on the ceiling, then you double jump DOWNWARDS. This is extremely useful for a quick recovery after a demanding aerial or a whiffed (the horror!) aerial. In terms of skill, this technique might be the easiest of the advanced, but it does require training and mental level-headedness. You’re dangling in shame in the air after missing the ball? Your teammate has decided to turtle back to the goal? The ceiling is looming ever closer, a smack to the head in affirmation of your shame? Ceiling Double Jump Recover to the Rescue! You might just make it back to the goal. Also, you need a new teammate. Fast Aerial: Boosting, you jump, adjust flight angle, jump again, and you keep on boosting because you never let go of boost, got it? You might need to reconfigure some buttons, as it’s hard to jump while boosting with the preconfigured button layout for gamepads. Or just grow a more flexible thumb. THIS IS A MUST IF YOU INTEND TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT ROCKET LEAGUE. You will lose the aerial game and get dunked on plenty if you don’t learn this technique.

Half Flip (fastest backwards turn): You backflip, then quickly press forward, and you should stop half way through your flip. Then air-roll 180 degrees to be upright. You can boost once you are facing the right direction for gaining even more speed. This is the fastest way to turn around. There were some other techniques for turning around, but these are outdated now. These previous techniques include jumping back, spinning, and then boosting. But again, they’re outdated. Get with the times kid. This technique is used in all game modes, but it should be a last resort. With proper positioning you should never have to see yourself do the half flip.

The Six Point Ball Touch: Your car has roughly six faces from which to hit the ball, and the different parts have different power with which they hit the ball. In general, Front>Back>Sides>Top>Bottom, meaning the front hits hardest, while the bottom poops out the weakest little fart shot. Ever see pros do crazy bends to hit the ball? It’s not just to look cool (though it looks cool), it’s so they may add that extra juice for the perfect shot or slow down the ball for that perfect pass. A must for those getting serious about RL, for the rest of use, just hitting an aerial is good enough.

Back Dodge Power Shot: At just the right distance from the ball, at just the right time, you can back dodge and by miraculous physics the ball will cannon forward to an opponent’s goal. Check out the link below, I have a suspicion some cars might not be as great at the this shot than others. It allows you to shoot on target without compromising your position. Consider a regular forward dodge shot. Fantastic! It’s on target! But the moment an opponent returns the shot in the direction of your goal, your forward momentum will have carried you almost into the opponent’s goal. Good luck getting back. With the Back Dodge, you’ve killed your momentum, meaning you are not rocketing towards the opponent’s goal. You are in position to defend. Or even better, to pounce on the ball yet again when your opponent makes a flimsy clear. This is best in 1v1s so you don’t compromise your position, any other game mode is a bit more forgiving because you have your teammates on whom you can rely.

Bounce dribble: As the ball bounces, you can keep the ball moving forward AND make it keep on bouncing. Usually this is an intermediate step for more advance techniques, like air dribbling or just as a setup for shooting the ball into the opponent’s goal. This is useful in all game modes, but it’s a double-edged sword, since this opens up the possibility of getting dunked on.

Fakes: This has to be an advanced technique because it only works with people who understand the game well. When you are going for a shot, your opponent might be predicting where you’ll shoot and lunge not at the ball, but at the SPACE where the ball will be after you shoot. In this scenario, you do a quick stop and just laugh as the opponent goes sailing by. It’s hilarious AND super effective, but it has a high cost. If the opponent sees what you’re up to, they can contest the ball, and now you’ve killed your momentum and are in a bad spot.

Passes: Instead of shooting into the goal, aim at your teammates. It’s hard because it requires deep knowledge of the game, of your opponents position, your teammates position, and the skill to squeeze that ball in to where your teammates can gain possession but not your opponents. You can chip, power shot, aerial, wall, off the wall, side dodge, or Six Point bottom (or any other point) of car hit the ball, the important thing is that it reaches your teammate. Then watch as you give them a perfect pass and they have ball cam turned off because they went to grab some boost. Get rid of that teammate.

Predictions: After some time, you recognize scenarios in Rocket League and you can tell where your opponents will send the ball next. The balls in the opponent’s corner, they’re about to hit it perpendicular-ish into the wall? That sucker will roll right on up, why not crawl up the wall and wait as it inevitably falls into your caring hands. Then kindly give the opponent back the ball, by hitting it into their goal. Wall Air Dribbling: You roll the ball pretty high on the wall, following the ball up the wall, you lightly tap off the wall, and before or near the peak of the ball’s arc you catch it on the nose of your car, like a rocket powered seal. Arf Arf! After this, it’s all aerial control. You can make crazy curves to get the ball into the goal, or, much less fun, you can pass to a teammate, or much more embarrassingly you really do nothing, run out of boost, and crawl back into your goal in shame. Not very practical for most game modes, except if you have a very noob opponent in a 1v1 that doesn’t know how to predict, aerial, and defend those shots.

Freestyle: Aerial, dribble, or find a way to score a goal in a creative manner. Usually players jump in the air, alternatively air rolling and spinning, and then finally pop in a goal. Other times you power slide, back flip, and in general jump all over the place in order to dodge around opponents. In general this technique is useless except for three things. First, it teaches you amazing car control. Let your mind learn the movement and combinations that air rolling and spinning allow. Your Six Point Ball Touch Technique will vastly increase if you can freestyle well. Second, it can be demoralizing. As in any competitive game, demoralization can really help secure that win. It might be sleazy, but it’s the truth. Then again, some players get fueled by rage when you freestyle on them, and then proceed to turn on the heat. It’s a double edged sword, use it wisely. Finally, it looks cool. That’s useless, you argue? No. You can make the big bucks that way. You can become a YouTube sensations that way, you can be Mark Zuckerberg’s BFF in this manner. Go on Twitch: there’s a boring powershot RLCS winner, or the muy guapo freestyling Noobie McNoobster.* Who will you watch play? The Noob? I thought so.

Pop Air Dribbling: You first need to perfect the bounce dribble. In the bounce dribble, just as you popped up that bounce you have to double jump and catch the ball with the tip of your car. Very rarely you can catch the ball in other ways (like side-spinning into the ball), but this is the sure fire way for you to air dribble starting from the ground. This requires lots of boost and will most likely deplete all your boost, but, as the RLCS Group Finals show, it can still be effective. Used sparingly throughout 1s, 2s, and 3s, the objective is always to surprise the opponent and remain in control of the ball even in the air.

EXTRA EXTRA Advanced:

Turtling: Air roll 180 degrees until you are on the back of the car, STOP hitting R2/Right Bumper (gas), boost and adjust angle to hit the ball into the opponents goal. BEST. PLAY. IN. ROCKET. LEAGUE. Kronovi has been quoted saying “Players that actually know how to turtle are my worst nightmare.” Scrub Killa’s only defensive weak point are turtle shots. Always try to turtle. ALWAYS.

*Note: I don’t actually freestyle.