Deadzones – A Game Changer

by Rocket League Coaching Discord | Apr 12, 2018 | Rocket League Guides

Hello. I’m Pasadena, a coach within the RLCD. You might have previously seen an editorial piece that I wrote here, about the theory behind learning in Rocket League. In this post, I’m going to do my best to answer a question I get asked very often: “What’s the difference between a square and a cross deadzone?” as well as give you some ideas about which you should use. I have played Rocket League extensively with both types, and the differences between the two are far from negligible. Changing from one to the other might be a step in the right direction towards becoming the best Rocket League player you can be.

Rocket League Deadzones – A Game Changing Explanation!

What is a Deadzone in Rocket League?

Firstly, I’d like to take a paragraph to briefly describe what a deadzone is, and provide resources regarding how you can configure your deadzone appropriately. A deadzone essentially refers to an area of input from your controller’s analog stick (also known as ‘joy stick’) which is ignored by a system. This means that if you move your analog stick within a deadzone, then you should see no changes on screen, effectively acting as if you didn’t move the deadzone at all. Typically, deadzone configuration settings range from 0.00 to 1.00. It is important to note that in Rocket League, the Controller Deadzone configuration setting refers to a radial deadzone, which means that the area of the deadzone is described as a circle. The deadzone settings within Rocket League can be found in the options menu, under the ‘Controls’ tab. Within this tab you can also find the ‘Dodge Deadzone’ setting, which will allow you to configure a cross-sectional deadzone that impacts at which point enough analog input is received to warrant a dodge, instead of a regular jump. Rocket Science is a fantastic YouTube content creator who has created a deadzone visualiser you can try out here, to better understand both of these concepts. I will include a video below that includes all you need to know about Rocket League and deadzones, by the same content creator.

Finally, make sure to check out Dodge Deadzone Explained – Rocket Science #7.1 also, to find out more about dodge deadzones.

Visual Differences Between Radial and Square Deadzones in Rocket League

With my fantastic artistic abilities and the use of Paint, I’ve attempted to make a simplified visual representation of both a square and a cross deadzone, that will be useful for most intents and purposes in understanding where the differences between the two come from.

A cross radial deadzone. The area in blue describes the area of input that can be received from the controller within the limits of the deadzone. The red area describes any area where input cannot be received from the controller within Rocket League.

A square radial deadzone. The area in blue describes where input can be received from the controller within the limits of the deadzone. The area in green describes where input can be interpreted and made into an output within Rocket League.

Functional Differences with Rocket League Deadzones

To break this idea down, on the left, within the cross deadzone, the small black dot should be interpreted as a pointer, or where the analog stick input is received by Rocket League as being. The black dot is able to move within the entirety of the blue area, but is unable to reach the red area, however the red area is a part of the analog input that can still be received by the game, but with a cross deadzone, you’re unable tor reach this. In the picture to the right, depicting my representation of a square deadzone, the circle described on the left is now instead a kite shape, or a rotated square. The difference, however, is that the entirety of the input area, both the red and blue area, are all within that small square. The blue area once again represents where the black dot is able to move, however the green area describes where input can still be interpreted by the game. In short: there are parts of the analog controls that a square deadzone can reach, through manipulation of the deadzone, but the cross deadzone can’t. As the image shows, this is apparent in the diagonals. Since mathematically a diagonal is comprised of both its horizontal and vertical components, then unless you are holding the analog stick exactly to the sides or towards the top and bottom, the square deadzone’s input is able to achieve a stronger output from Rocket League. This difference reaches its maximum if the analog stick is held directly at 45 degrees to the normal. Below, I’ll describe some of the maths behind this, if you’re interested.

The Mathematics – Why Square Deadzones Have More Reach

For this example, we want to find out the ratio between the circle’s radius r and the diagonal across the highlighted area, d.

Using Pythagoras’ theorem, it follows that:

d² = r² + r²
d² = 2r²

(d²)½ = (2r²)½

d = (√2)r

√2 ~ 1.414

If we assume that r has an arbitrary value of 1, then:

d = (1.414)(1) = 1.414

So a square deadzone is able to reach approximately 41% further than the regular radial cross deadzone. Since the deadzones are measured in terms of vertical and horizontal components, in actuality, this value is halved, to which we’ll approximate as ±21% difference.

This is a controller profile of mine shown in the XInput Software DS4Windows. On the right, you can see I’ve increased the left analog stick sensitivity to 1.21, or 121%. On the left, in the ‘Left Stick’ display, the more opaque dot shows the input my controller is receiving, and the more transparent, grey dot shows what the output is. As you can see, along the diagonal, the analog input is effectively emulating a square deadzone.

Solutions – How to Modify Deadzone Settings in Rocket League

Ways to square your deadzone are described in Rocket Science’s video through the Steam controller configuration settings. These configuration settings can be quite difficult to use, and there have been numerous reports of them causing problems for others – myself included. When I used to use a square deadzone, I used Durazno’s Squareness software, which can be found in a Reddit thread here. As mentioned in that post, the DS3, or Dualshock 3, (the controller the Playstation 3 uses) uses a squared deadzone by default. Two notable players who use a Dualshock 3 are Kuxir97 and Fairy Peak, for this reason. This begs the question: what can console players do? Am I at a significant disadvantage playing on console because of this? Well, there’s a fairly rudimentary way of getting around this on consoles, however it is far from perfect, for reasons I will explain shortly. As shown above, you can increase the sensitivity of analog inputs by approximately 21% in order to achieve an otherwise squared deadzone. There are two configurable settings within the Rocket League options menu under ‘Controls’: ‘Steering Sensitivity’ and ‘Aerial Sensitivity’. For all intents and purposes, I would keep these two near the same value at all times. Increase them how you like, however having them different will likely result in inconsistent controls, and thus less control. Console players can increase their sensitivity values to approximately 1.40 or higher to help overcome the ‘inertia’ felt from lacking the diagonal strength in your controls. I don’t believe this increases the range, so this is unlikely to effectively square your deadzone, but it’s currently the best thing to do on console to stay competitive. On PC, you can effectively emulate a square deadzone to a better extent as seen below, by increasing the analog sensitivity by 21%, but you’ll see the issue that arises when you do this.

If you look at the image above, you’ll see that within the ‘Left Stick’ display, the grey dot is no longer there, however the sensitivity of the left stick is still the same. Just to make things more clear, I increased the sensitivity of the right stick by 50%, and you can see the dot barely next to the centre point of the ‘Right Stick’ display. So, where is the dot; what’s the output? Well, the dot displaying the output is actually outside of the borders of the area shown. Going beyond the border doesn’t make the input any greater, however it’s effectively receiving an input of me pushing the analog 100% towards the left, when in actuality I’m holding it at around 80-90%. This means that unless you are holding the analog stick at exactly 45 degrees to the normal, or in diagonal fashion, then your deadzone is no longer able to emulate a square one. If you’re interested, this happens because the inputs are received as vectors with horizontal and vertical components, however the sensitivity option applies this to the resultant vector, and not its components independently. So, unless you were to hold the stick fully towards any of the sides, then your input will always be stronger than intended. Is this a problem? I personally believe it is. As you’ll see in the next section, the way a square deadzone can affect your ability to play Rocket League can be quite drastic, and sometimes allowing you to utilise mechanics that are otherwise impossible, or extremely difficult to do, with a cross deadzone.

Effective Differences – Field Examples of Deadzone Differences

Generally, playing with a squared deadzone makes the game more difficult to control, however offers the ability to do more things, effectively increasing the skill ceiling. Since the diagonal of the inputs is able to be reached, things you will immediately notice are a tighter turning radius (or feels more responsive) and the ability to spin on the diagonals more quickly during aerials. The latter of the two is shown below. The video in which this particular instance is shown can be found here.

The car on the left spins with a squared deadzone whilst the car on the right uses a regular deadzone. The squared deadzone requires a quicker spin.

Freestylers often use a squared deadzone to allow them to make more full rotations before making the final shot. Flip resets (off the ball) are also markedly more easy to achieve with a squared deadzone, however controlling the ball in the air can be a lot more difficult to achieve without using a very high deadzone value, such as 0.25 or higher.

The area in which square deadzones dominate the most is in the Solo Duel playlist. Generally, in my experience, regaining control of the ball after a challenge in playlists like Standard and Doubles is more difficult with a squared deadzone, simply because you’re more likely to make a more powerful hit, or your increased speed of play means you’ll beat your opponent to the ball without them challenging it as strongly, which can lead to possession being given away. In the Solo Duel playlist, you don’t have to be too concerned about where the ball goes so long as you beat your opponent to it: tighter turning, faster aerials, faster rotations and a stronger diagonal are all key to being a threatening opponent and purely keeping your opponent out of the game. Often, you will find very mechanically gifted players on the Solo Duel leaderboard who struggle in other playlists. I’ve found that this can often be due to a square deadzone, however this isn’t always the case. Personally, I find I’m much more easily able to compete at a high level during solo duels with a square deadzone, as opposed to a regular one. Try each out yourself, and see what feels better for you.

Flick Differences with Deadzones

One very important part of dribbling and the Solo Duel playlist in general are flicks. As you get more highly rated in Rocket League, you will begin to see your opponents utilise flicks from an angle instead of linearly, which in short, means that diagonals are going to be involved. A certain flick has the potential to dominate a game should you be consistent enough with it: the 45-degree flick. The 45-degree flick essentially involves rotating your car to a 45-degree angle, and back-flip half-flipping to launch the ball across the length of your car. In my experience, with the extra power from the squared deadzone, these flicks have the potential to be absolutely unstoppable. It is also significantly more difficult to set up 45-degree flicks with a regular deadzone, as well as the flicks launching the ball more slowly and often lower. Below, is an unlisted video I created showcasing a few minutes with -and without- a square deadzone, and trying out a few flicks in free play. Hopefully you can see the differences in power and height. These flicks can be extremely venomous, check out a few of these flicks by RLCD.GG official team member, xXander. Also be sure to check out his Twitch channel, which he soon plans to fill with streams, showcasing his incredible Rocket League abilities.

Turning Differences with Squared Deadzones

In relation to the tighter, more responsive turning that comes from having a squared deadzone, one specific area in which the difference is very noticeable is when turning clockwise or anti-clockwise up a wall. Since Rocket League is a physics-based game, just as you’ve probably realised by now that the ball always returns to the ground – so must your car. As you drive up a wall, the in-game ‘gravity’ pulls your car back down. As you turn towards the normal of this force, then the force propelling you upwards will become weaker and weaker relative to this gravitational force. So how is this effective? Well, when trying to turn as previously described, there’s a noticeable sluggish nature with which you’re able to navigate the wall, and often to keep control, you need to powerslide at certain times in order to maintain a tight turning radius. When using a squared deadzone, because there’s a greater vertical component wherever your analog stick is diagonally held, you’re able to maintain a greater upwards force, and in effect, you’re more easily able to turn on the walls when pulling away from gravity. This might seem like a very small thing, but I’m sure we can all recall times where turning in the corner whilst defending has felt particularly sluggish and difficult, sometimes resulting in you not being able to face the ball as quickly as you’d intended to. Although this can’t really be shown visually, I’ve included an example of the kind of turn I mean below.

Also take note that the “sluggish” feeling when using a non-squared deadzone is still present in general turning. Your turning radius technically isn’t affected, since you’re only holding the analog stick at right-angles, however when turning in games and the analog stick crosses the diagonal, the difference is definitely apparent. Going from a squared deadzone back to a regular one is something I’ve experienced a lot of difficulty with personally. Turns that you are normally expected to make with ease suddenly require a much more hefty use of powerslide, and it can be difficult to chip the ball effectively when turning on it with very little space.

Flip Resets with Deadzones in Rocket League

As previously mentioned, another high-level mechanic I’ve noticed is considerably easier with a squared deadzone is using the ball as a surface to reset your flip from. It’s generally easier in practicality because the quicker diagonal turning allows you to get around the ball, and often in games making the decision to go for a flip-reset is a quick-to-be-made under certain circumstances, and being able to find your way towards the side or the bottom of the ball as quickly as possible is extremely important in being able to generate enough power to reset your flip. Another reason they are much easier is because you are able to recover more quickly after the reset. If you didn’t know, to achieve a flip-reset, you’re required to touch the ball with all four of your wheels (and some force) at once, but at the same time, your undercarriage will make contact with the ball. The undercarriage of your car is the weakest part of it, and actually has the unique quality of slowing the ball down when making contact. Due to the nature of this, often when attempting to achieve a reset, you’re inevitably slowed down, and often too much to properly catch up with the ball or get under it enough to take another shot with your newly-acquired flip. The quicker turning from the squared deadzone and the more powerful diagonals help to create a much ‘cleaner’ feel to resetting your flips, since as you slide off the ball, you don’t seem to lose as much power. Flip-resets made with a regular deadzone in my experience generally require quite a large set-up as opposed to being something you can spontaneously do. Here’s an example of a more ‘spontaneous’ flip-reset I got with a squared deadzone.

Visual with Square Deadzone

The Ultimate Rocket League Trainer Pack Guide For Champ To Grand Champion Players

by kieran | Mar 18, 2018 | Rocket League Guides

What’s going on Rocket League Fam! Wayprotein here to drop some Rocket League Trainer Pack recommendations today. Back around 4 months ago, Rocket League Coaching Discord Staff dropped an epic posted called The Ultimate Training Pack Guide For Diamond and Below Players. It was a huge hit in the Rocket League Community

The post by Chupa49 was meant for Diamond and below players, so when Chupa approached me to compile this post, I was hyped to get started. This guide is for the big boys. Whether you are new to the Champ Ranks or a Grand Champion looking to refine your skills and looking for new challenges I have included them all. 40+ videos and recommendations in total. Let’s get started!

The Ultimate Rocket League Trainer Pack Guide For Champ & Up Players

Air Dribbling

Okay, so at this point I would assume that you know how to air dribbling competently. Chupa’s post offered a lot of great intro packs that would have gotten you familiar with air dribbling. For this level play, it’s mostly about pushing for a new challenge so what better way to push your stuff and challenge a world record!

Challenge Hexz’s Air Dribble World Record

No training pack here. Below is proof of Hexz air dribble record currently at 13:02. Can you beat his time? Watch the video, fire up free play (or a private match), and go for the record!

Air Roll Shots

There are times when the ball is near the net, but you need to adjust quickly in order to hit the ball quickly. An air roll shot brings in a balance mix of speed, precision and power. Azure RL provides a great tutorial introducing the skill.

Air Roll Ground Shots

Creator: Wayprotein
Level – Diamond to Champion I
Code – B4EB-C56A-BA9D-5300

Air Roll shots is a big transition you need to make when you start hitting Champ + ranks. This Rocket League Trainer Pack from yours truly is a 24 shot pack that introduces the player to air roll control for shots. When you were Diamond and below, you likely just moved your analog stick, boosted and flip. This pack throws in angled shots that require the player to adjust using air roll before hitting the ball. This is how advance players hit hard angle shots and a skill you must master at higher levels.

Air Roll Shots

Creator: Yeeza
Level – Diamond to Champion I
Code – 84D2-072D-80CF-7D0D

Yeeza provides a nice 20 shot trainer pack that mixes up various angels. This may seem simple if you are higher in the Champ ranks, but air roll shots is such a big foundational skill for entering champ+ level that it should be practiced and mastered.

Backboard Shots

Squishy Muffinz Backboard Shots

Creator: Squishy Muffinz
Level – Champ+
Code – 2486-EEA6-B887-A040

Squishy Muffinz brings it which this 10 pack shot pack that is all about speed an precision. Getting good at this thing will build up your speed when hitting backboards.

Grand Champ Backboard Aerials

The title says it all. This small 6 shot pack is intense with backboards that require speed and precision.

Creator: Peeter
Level – Champ+
Code – CC69-668B-4507-0272

Backboard Shots Training Pack by Lachino

Creator: Lachino
Level – Champ+
Code – AFFD-5023-BD4F-D320

This 8 shot Rocket League trainer pack features several above the goal and off center backboards. This is a great pack for those in lower Champ ranks.

Car Control

Car control in the air is an advanced skill you need to master entering the champion ranks. Players who get to the Grand champion ranks know how to adjust in mid car and can direct shots to where they want it to go with power or finesse.

Obstacle Course #2

Creator : French Fries
Level – Champ+
Code – See Steam Workshop link

French fries keeps delivering great map packs that can really enhance your car air control mechanics. This map tests your aerial adjustments. If you want to git gud at air control, give this map a try!

Parkour-Map #2

Creator : Dreale
Level – High Diamond to Low Champion
Code – See Steam Workshop link

This custom workshop map includes moving obstacles for you to maneuver around and helps build mechanics on aerial adjustments

Speed Jump by DMC

Creator : DMC
Level – Champ+
Code – See Steam Workshop link

A very challenging map that pushing your air control abilities to the max. Squishy demonstrates how hard this map is as there are sections that he even struggles with!

The Wall

Creator : French Fries
Level – Champ+
Code – See Steam Workshop link

A custom map that not only works on your car control, but also your speed! Race through a series of obstacles faster than The Wall chases you. If The Wall hits you, the level restarts!

Ceiling Shots

Many Rocket League players play around with ceiling shots before they hit Champ and likely spend way too much time practicing. However, once you hit champ ranks this become a common skill set. It’s time to master this skill if you want to get into the higher champ ranks. G2 Rocket League Pro Kronovi breaks down Ceiling Shots and Flip Resets below in this well done 10+ minute tutorial.

Ceiling Shots by Wayprotien

Creator : Wayprotein
Level – Champ+
Code – AFC9-2CCC-95EC-D9D4

This is one of the best intro ceiling shot packs out there. This is a very comprehensive 12 shot trainer pack that sets you up with doable ceiling shots.

Ceiling Shots by Yeeza

Creator : Yeeza
Level – Champ+
Code – 94D7-0D24-CCDF-7A7A

Yeeza’s pack introduces some more advanced ceiling shots that require delayed shots and redirections.

Okay, so you got the prior two packs down. It’s time to graduate to Way’s 16 shot pack. This one starts mixing up pass situations and using your flip resets to hit goals. Trying getting 100%.

Creator : Wayprotein
Level – Champ III +
Code – 86BB-9444-FFD6-D610

Dribbling

At this point in your Rocket League career, I’m going to assume you have at least some higher immediate level understanding of dribbling mechanics. It’s time to step up your dribble with challenges and there is no better than the Dribbling Challenge #2 course. You can make is extra challenge by making a run for the speedrun record.

Creator : French Fries
Level – Champ+
Code – See Steam Workshop link

Freestyling

Everyone loves flashy plays. Chupa’s post had introductory freestyling play. It’s time to take it up to the next level with these Rocket League trainer packs.

A Freestylers Challenge

Creator – Legend9873
Level – Champ+
Code – 4415-178D-CDE3-F210

This training pack puts you in very useful advanced freestyling scenarios. What I love about this pack is that you are giving several options to be creative in how you make a goal. This video by Legend walks you through all the shot options to mix things up.

Hall of Rockets

Creator – Hexzi
Level – Champ+
Code – D98C-07BC-067F-F45D

This is a classic Jhzer training pack. It literally puts up shots that you see Jhzer make in his highlights. Creator Hexzi really shows off his skills here with several triple touches and flip resets. If you want those highlight plays, start practicing this!

Freestyle Angle Shots Vol.2

Creator – Kdium
Level – Champ+
Code – 5F4B-53F1-CC4C-A55E

This is only a 7 shot Rocket League Trainer Pack, but the demonstrator in the video, Slope, shows a lot of advanced skills on hitting the ball using double touches and ceiling shots. Try to mimic Slope in the demo video here for max effectiveness.

Gravitty’s Double Touch Pack

Creator – Gravittyy
Level – Champ+
Code – 695B-AA35-9CD3-1C36

A 10 shot pack that mixes double touches and freestyling. If you can hit shot #9 like Slop in this video, you are a god.

Flip Resets

Flip resets is the big meta going on in Rocket League right now. They were covered in Chupa’s original post, but if you are in Champ rank you should start building familiarly with it. At high champ ranks, pretty much anyone you come across can pull them off when they need to. These shot packs will tune your skills.

Ball Flip Reset Shots

Creator – YeeZa
Level – Champ+
Code – B5AC-17E0-4133-B8A4

This is an excellent intro pack by YeeZa. He does a great job at explaining the mechanic and this Rocket League trainer pack is more on the newbie friendly side. You can challenge this at Diamond ranks. It’s just that there are more impact things to learn before Champ rank.

Torment’s Flip Reset Aerial Training Pack

Creator – Torment
Level – Champ+
Code – 2186-5167-B7C8-C46F

Torment’s flip reset pack focuses on close range flip resets. These are good practice for when 50/50s happen or when a ball gets popped up in your direction.

Flip Cancels

At this point in your Rocket League career, you are familiar with half-flips. Half-flips utilize a mechanic called flip cancelling. We are taking the defensive application of flip cancelling and now applying it to offensive play. There is a trainer pack below for flip cancel shots below, but there is a good video from Squishy and shows how to apply this to adjust in mind air or to fake.

Cancel Flip Shots

Creator – YeeZa
Level – Diamond to Champ
Code – 306E-237A-053E-BE1E

Flip shot cancels are an accuracy and speed skill that will keep you from losing control of your car when you need to flip to hit the ball with extra power. This 10 shot training shot pack provides several scenarios where you can practice.

Passing

Breakaway Passes Training

Creator – Lethamyr
Level – Champ+
Code – 5A61-5289-FD96-5884

When you get to Champ+ level, teammates are going to start passing you the ball during breakaways. This pack by Rocket League Pro Lethamyr sets you up for success with easy to digest pass situations.

KarmaRL Shot Pack

Creator – KarmaRL
Level – High Diamond to Low Champ
Code – 0C38-2D11-109D-EAF3

This 10 shot training pack by Karma mixes up a number of passing and rebound situations will build good muscle memory for those entering the low champion levels.

Redirects

Squishy Muffinz Redirect Pack

Creator – Squishy Muffinz
Level – Champ+
Code – E825-8BE8-79FA-F879

Advanced Redirects & Rebounds Training Pack

Creator – Legend9873
Level – Champ+
Code – 7EBC-D4DD-1799-2089

This 14 shot pack offers both advanced rebound and redirect training for Champ+ players. There are 7 shots for rebounds and 7 shots for redirects. The rebounds need to be be set up by yourself, but the video below shows how you would set them up. Freestyling is optional :).

Roof Rebounds – Offense

Torment’s Roof Rebound Pack

Creator – Torment
Level – Champ+
Code – E335-9A2E-0AAB-DDCE

This training pack is made to help increase consistency on reading bounces off of the ceiling, specifically for aerial goals. You can either score the shot straight in or make a rebound for yourself, depending on the situation

Wall Pitch Shots

In Chupa’s post, he shared a great 30 shot training pack that focused on pitch shots. That is a great pack to use at this level, but Squishy offers a new pack that works really well at learning how to make those Kuxir shots.

Wall Pitch Shots (Kuxir Pitch Shots)

Creator – Squishy Muffinz
Level – Champ+
Code – 21C6-0DC1-233D-EEF7

Squishy offers us a new training pack that focuses on wall pitch shots that can turn into shots on goals (AKA Kuxir pitch shots). What I love about this pack is that the setup for these shots are similiar to air dribbles and ceiling shots. Getting familiar with this would now allow you to have a 3 pronged approach to your wall offense, which pitches really being shots that are unexpected when they happen.

Wave Dashing

Some of you reading this are already familiar with Wave Dashing in Rocket League. For those of you not fimiliar with Wave Dashing, here is Sir Timber’s tutorial explaining how to perform the mechanic.

Wave Dash Shots

Creator – YeeZa
Level – Champ+
Code – F9EF-2D99-BA51-9E8A

This training pack applies wave dashing to actual shots. This is a great introduction on how to start using wave dash for offense and not just for recovery

Bunny Hop Wave Dashing (Gallop Dash)

There is no training pack here, but at this level it’s time to introduce advanced wave dashing mechanics. The first introduction to multiple wave dash mechanics is the the bunny hop wave dash. Shippotv provides an introduction to it below:

Wave Dash Flicks

Again, no training pack here, but this is another valuable tutorial from RLCS Elite player Red showing how to use the wave dash for dribbling and flicks.

Goalie Training Packs for Champs

Goalie training is hard to do at this level because of how the trainer is setup. You mostly want to work on wall defense, intercepting passes, and clearing wall. But there is one type of save that comes in handy below.

Goal Roof Saves

Creator – Wayprotein
Level – Champ+
Code – 8100-D918-13C7-394F

This packs combines ceiling shots with goalie defense. If you can get good at this you can clear the ball much further than you normally would.

Rocket League Trainer Pack Creator Credits

This post would have not been possible without these great creators who put the hours in their game to develop these rocket league training packs. Below are all the creators used in this post and where to find them and follow on social media. If I couldn’t find their social media, I have linked to their Rocket League Tracker Profile. Give them some love by following them.

DMC – Link
Dreale – Link
Gravitty – Link
French Fries – Link
Hexzi – Link
KarmaRL – Link
Kdium – Link
Kronovi – Link
Lachino – Link
Legend9873 – Link
Lethamyr – Link
Peeter – Link
Red – Link
Torment – Link
Sir Timbers – Link
Squishy Muffinz – Link
Way Protein – Link
Yeeza – Link

Thanks for reading and viewing and see you in-game or on our Discord server!

Rocket League Trainer Packs for Champ+ Players – About the Author

Wayprotein has been a Grand Champion in Rocket League since season 3. He competes regularly in Rocket League tournaments, including RLCS and CRL (Collegiate Rocket League). He is a proud member of Team RLCD NA and is known in the Rocket League community for his training packs.

How to Trade in Rocket League (And Not Get Ripped Off!)

by kieran | Feb 7, 2018 | Rocket League Guides

For games that offer tradable, in-game items, the methods used to exchange these “goods” from one user to another become hugely relevant and develop entire communities of their own (whether we like it or not!). Rocket League is no different, and its item economy has boomed along with the popularity of the game itself. With the amount of information out there and new cosmetics being released almost every update, getting your feet wet with trading or even staying up to speed can be a daunting task. Thankfully, we’re here to answer all your questions!  This ‘how to trade in Rocket League’ guide is a comprehensive article describing all the aspects of the trading system, including item descriptions, how to get keys, how to trade, where to go to trade, and most importantly — how not to get ripped off in a trade. It is strange that a Rocket League Coaching group would provide a guide like this, but our goal is to coach the player how what trading is and how not to get scammed! Hopefully, at the end of this article, you will be informed enough to get out there and start trading in Rocket League!

How To Trade In Rocket League Guide TOC

How To Get Keys In Rocket League

The most straightforward way of getting keys in Rocket League is to purchase them from the in-game menu. Purchasing keys directly from the in-game menu supports the developer, and a part of the proceeds go towards funding the Rocket League eSports scene. Keys purchased in-game cannot be traded for 7 days to protect users against fraudulent charges, so keep that in mind.

How To Get Free Rocket League Keys

This is what some of you are here for. Let’s face it, the game doesn’t give one an obvious way of getting keys for free like you might be able to in some F2P mobile games. There are, however, several ways to get Rocket League keys without spending your cold hard cash. They are:

1. Trade items to other players for keys
2. Trade crates to other players for keys
3. Using trade-ups for betters items and trading upgraded items
4. Trading items from RLCS events for Keys

Trade Items To Other Players for Keys

This is the simplest way. If you have items that other players want, you can trade them for items that you want. There are several places I’m going to recommend for you to go to trade without fear of getting scammed

Trade Crates To Other Players for Keys

If you are not going to use keys to open crates up yourself, this is a good way to get free rocket league keys. Crates drop regularly during online play. When new crates types come out, that is the best time to trade them as they can go for nearly a key a piece or 2 crates for a key. Other crates will fetch a much lower piece.

Using Trade Ins for Better Items and Trading Upgraded Items

With the newest update to the training up system there are some valuable items you can pull from the trade in system. In other to trade in your items, you need to trade in an item of the same rarity. The trade in system is shown in the video below:

One of the more up to date trade in simulators out there is RL Market’s simulator. You can go there and see what items you can get. As of this post, it does not include the new banner updates so it’s a little out of data, but still helpful. Some valuable trade items you can obtain for free would include:

• Any painted octane
• Any painted breakout
• Titanium white octane
• White painted boosts
• Painted banners

Opening Crates without Keys – Decryptors

During certain events like the Christmas event, you can purchase decryptors with in-game free currency for a limited amount of them. You can use this currency to purchase decryptors which are usually capped at 5. To maximize your returns, it would be best to use all your points for the special event crates and trade them away while the event is going on for free Rocket League keys.

How to Get Crates (The Rocket League Crate System)

There are 3 ways to get crates in Rocket League:

1. Play online matches
2. Trade items or keys to other players for crates
3. Purchase event-themed crates

Psyonix announced on May 22, 2017 that each different type of crate will be scheduled for retirement roughly six months after their initial release. This means that the retired crates will no longer drop after matches. Consequently, fewer types of crates can be acquired via online matches, increasing the chance for newer crates.

What is the Rocket League Crate Drop Rate?

There is no official statement from Psyonix regarding this. Players have theorized that the crate drop is around 10 hours per crate. However, keep in mind that drops occur randomly and on a weekly basis they get reset. Drops also occur unevenly so one week you make get 1 crate and the next week you might get 4.

Rocket League Crate Farming

Crate farming is a bannable offense in Rocket League. Given how random crate drops are in-game, the best recommendation would be to just play and not worry about it or utilizing additional Rocket League accounts (Smurfs) if you play more than 10 hours a week.

Rocket League Item Rarity Levels

There are 7 levels of rarity associated with items. Here they are, from most common to least common:

1. Common
2. Uncommon
3. Rare
4. Very Rare
5. Import
6. Exotic
7. Black Market*

You can trade up 5 items of the same rarity to receive one item from the next-highest tier. If you are trading in items from crates, all 5 items must be from the same crate, and you will receive one item of the next-highest rarity level from that crate. Note that you cannot trade up to black market rarity. You can only receive black market items from opening crates or trading other players.

Certified Items In Rocket League 

When you receive an item, either from a drop or a crate, there is a small chance that the item will have special attributes. They can either be painted or certified (or both, if you’re lucky!). Certified items will keep track of a specific in-game stats as long as you have that item equipped on your car (online matches only).

In total, there are 15 certifications. Here they are, along with the stat that they keep track of:

1. Acrobat (Bicycle Goals)
2. Aviator (Aerial Goals)
3. Goalkeeper (Saves)
4. Guardian (Epic Saves)
5. Juggler (Juggles)
6. Paragon (MVP)
7. Playmaker (Assists)
8. Scorer (Goals)
9. Show-Off (Backwards Goals)
10. Sniper (Long Goals)
11. Striker (Shots on Goal) – Popular
12. Sweeper (Clear Balls)
13. Tactician (Center Balls)  – Popular
14. Turtle (Turtle Goals)
15. Victor (Wins)

Leveling Up Certified Items in Rocket League

http://rocketleague.wikia.com/wiki/Certified_Items

In addition, you can level up item certifications by hitting milestones in each stat. There are 10 levels for each tag. The Each certification has different milestones. Here are the 1-5 levels titles:

1. Certified
2. Capable
3. Skillful
4. Veteran
5. Fantastic

After level 5 there are 5 more additional titles. The names differ depending on the certification, but they are listed below (Source – Rocket League wiki):

Painted Items in Rocket League

The painted attribute alters the appearance of an item to emphasize a specific color or color scheme. For example, a cobalt-painted Chakram wheel will cause the spokes and rim of the wheel to appear blue, even though Chakram wheels normally appear red.

There are 13 different paint colors in Rocket League:

1. Black
2. Burnt Sienna (Brown)
3. Cobalt (Blue)
4. Crimson (Red)
5. Forest Green
6. Grey
7. Lime
8. Orange
9. Purple
10. Saffron (Yellow)
11. Sky Blue
12. Titanium White – Most valuable
13. Pink

Note: not all items have painted variants, and not all items that can be painted have all 13 paint colors available.

Best Places To Go Trade For Items (And Rocket League Price Lists Sites)

Know that you know about different, crates, items, and attributes, you probably want to know where to go to trade and look up prices. I’m going to just say this straight up that I only recommend ONE website that you use to conduct trades. That would be Reddit’s R/RocketLeagueExchange

R/RocketLeagueExchange

It’s very active community and legitimate place to post trades and make exchanges. There is also a price checking trend where you can ask the price for items. Here is why I only recommend them:

They Do Not Control The Rocket league Trading Market

The subreddit is an independent site where you can meet other peers and get trusted values assessments for trades. They do not own a value database like other sites so all the pricing info you get is from the players and from grassroots.

They are not tied or have partnerships with paid trading

This is the biggest pitch from me to you about why you should only trade here. Many trade sites are either affiliated with larger website networks (which means they are backed behind commercial websites) or they take paid ad placements from paid trading sites. Paid trading is where things can go seriously wrong with Rocket League Training. It is also against the terms of service in the game. Just like you trust us for your Rocket League Coaching needs because we are free and independent, go with the trading community that promotes the same philosophy. The trading system was designed to be free and using the keys system is one of the best ways to directly support the developers.

They Have A Trusted Middleman Network

I’ll get into common rocket league trading scams later in this post. Middleman scams are one of the most harmful and common scams in the trading community. You should NEVER for valuable items unless you have a trusted middleman to conduct your trade. The R/rocketleagueexchange maintains since a network and these middlemen have experience in handling these transactions in a mature and friendly way.

Should I Use A Rocket League Prices Spreadsheets?

With all these sites out now that provide up to date information and the trading subreddit, a google spreadsheet is really not a reliable way to go to get up to date Rocket League trading information. It is better to go to the subreddit to check for prices and to find other players who want to trade with you.

How Do I Avoid Getting Ripped Off on Rocket League Trades?

Here are some quick tips to avoid getting ripped off on a Rocket League trade

How To Trade In Rocket League Scam Avoidance – Never trade for real money!

This is the #1 reason on how people get scammed or ripped off on trades. It is very easy to scam someone with a real money trade exploiting charge-backs and paypal or simply by having you trade first. It is just best to just avoid it completely and only trade with keys.

Get familiar with Rocket League item prices

Spending a few days not trading, but instead looking at trade sites like r/rocketleagueexchange will give you a good idea about prices and want players are willing to trade for.

Common Scams

Here is a list of Rocket League Trading scamming methods and how to avoid them.

Trade Stuffing Scam

A common scam technique is when you are trading with someone and they add some junk items in the trade window. They will add a lot of them and then add the item you want. Then, just before accepting the trade, they will remove the item you want from the list hoping you will not notice. When you see traders like this, just reject it and kick them from your party. It’s not worth the risk and do not even roll with their lame excuse that they are just messing around. A lot of people get scammed this way. An example video of the tactic is shown below:

The Fake Color Scam

This method uses the image preview of an item in the trade window to fool you into thinking it is a better item. The best way to avoid this scam if you are on console is to hover over the item that the player has put down and use the L3 button so you can see the color. On PC, look for a button near the item called “show item details”. Example video is below:

The Fake Middleman Scam

A middleman is used where there is an item you are trading for that involves more than 50 items (e.g. – very valuable items). A middleman is utilized to ensure both players are protected when the trade is being performed. The middleman collects and distributes the items so there are no problems. This scam involves using a fake middleman. The middleman will collect the items from you and then will disappear.

The best way to avoid this scam is to only deal with middleman transactions with a trusted source. R/rocketleagueexchange maintains an updated list of trusted middleman that you can use for your high-value transactions. The link to the trend is here.

Too Good To Be True Scams

A not well known, but very effective scam that preys on the excitement when trading. This scam will involve 2 traders. One will post an amazing offer for a very specific item. It looks like a great deal, but you do not have this item because it is very specific. Then, right after this trading post, you see another with the item you need! The specfic item is a low value item and the trade is asking for 3-4 keys. It is overpaying, but it seems worth it because you will get more keys out of the second deal so you jump in. You trade your keys for this item and the other player you try to get a hold of never responds.

The best way to avoid these scams is to not trust these too good to be true offers. They are likely scams — and also avoid two deal trades unless you are using a trusted middleman.

Duplicating Items Scam

This has been a well known scam in any game with a trading system. It’s a classic scam that claims many victims everyday. The scammer will claim to know a glitch or have a program that can duplicate item. They may actually should you how they “duplicate” an sample low value item in an attempt to prove what they are saying is true. This trick is easy to exploit in game because the scammer can show you the item, but this item is a client side version. They will use this to bait you into attempting to duplicate a more valuable item, which they will happily steal from you and leave you with the fake “duplicate” version, which will disappear soon after.

This scam is a little hard to explain in words, so here is a video that shows how the scam works:

The best way to avoid this scam is to ignore players offering rocket league item duplication. Like I said, duplication in video games with trade systems is one of the most common scams and has been used for years to scam players. Don’t be a victim!

Scamming Using Gift Cards or Payment Through Paypal

A scammer will attempt to give you a gift card or paypal money for your rocket league item (e.g. – pay you money for your item). They may even attempt to overpay you to get you to bite. They will usually try to get you to provide the item first, then will quickly go away and steal your item. Another method is they will attempt to use a middleman for the transaction, then the middleman will steal your item. They can also give you an invalid gift card code.

The best way to avoid this is to simply avoid trading for real life money. Stick to using keys and the trade system itself.

Popular Items with Approximate Value (in Keys/on PC) *as of 1/20/18

Here is a list of popular items with approximate value. Any of these items below are highly sought after and will likely maintain a high key value throughout the life of Rocket League

Titanium White Zomba = 170-180

Titanium White Octane = 100-110

Heatwave Decal = 20-24

Dueling Dragons Goal Explosion = 23-26

Titanium White Apex Wheels = 100+ Keys

Note: The value of items can change quickly based on many different factors. Prices listed may not be accurate.

Most Valuable (Expensive) Rocket League Create Items

People have asked this in the past on our discord server so I wanted to list it here. In summary, the most expensive or valuable items in Rocket League at Alpha items and the infamous white hat. Values are shown below as of the date of this post.

Goldrush Boost = 1400-1500
Goldstone Wheels = 1300-1400
Alpha Cap = 200-210

White Hat = 3000+ Keys

The White Hat is perhaps the rarest of all Rocket League items, which is worth at least 3,000 keys (and that’s being conservative). There is no real way to obtain this hat via crates, and people who have found and reported game-breaking bugs to Psyonix. Considering all that, you can imagine how few of these hats exist within the Rocket League community.

The first person to ever get this hat reported an extremely game-breaking bug, which would have allowed him to change anybody’s level at any point in time. Instead of abusing the bug, he hid it from everyone else and reported it immediately to the developers in hopes of keeping his favorite game clean and fun. While Psyonix wanted to pay him monetary compensation for his honesty, he declined, and instead, created the unique white hat we know today. Don’t ever let anybody tell you that last folks finish last!

How To Trade In Rocket League Author Bio

MatthewIcicle is a longtime community member and a part of RLCD’s events & media team. He enjoys running tournaments, opening unwarranted amounts of crates, and mediocre games of solo standard.