A Rocket League Maps Guide with Insider Secrets
Hello! Welcome back to the ole’ blog if you’ve been here before, and if you haven’t read any of my stuff before, kick back, relax, and let me take you on a trip across Rocket League. This is a Rocket League Maps Guide, as in—you guessed it—it’s a guide about the various maps throughout Rocket League and some of the insider secrets about them!
Table of Contents
Basic 411
Okay, you’ve cracked open the game for the first time, and you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about by “maps.” You might have a vague inkling, but don’t worry. I’ll clear up the basics before we go any further. In Rocket League, every game in every mode is played on a map (though some people call them fields, arenas, or stadiums). There are about a dozen maps and more seem to get added all the time, but the general rule of thumb is all that all of them had a way for each team to score and you have to stay within a certain area (unless you’re like that one lucky guy that got lost and escaped the bounds through a weird glitch).
The vast majority of the maps have two goals, one on each side of a rectangular box. There are a couple exceptions that I will cover in a minute, but for now, let’s just run with that. The fun thing about the maps is that all of them have a theme! For example, there’s a map called Wasteland. Wasteland, unsurprisingly, is a dangerous, dusty arena that looks straight out of a Mad Max movie. Everything’s big and loud and colorful. Dust storms ravage the playing field and when you score, the goals erupt with enormous amounts of confetti. In short, it’s pretty freakin’ awesome. There are certain cars that are meant to go with it, too, like the Ripper.
Don’t like sand? Think dust is annoying? Rocket League also has a map called AquaDome, which puts the arena square in the middle of an ocean somewhere, complete with massive sharks swimming around outside. Like Wasteland, it’s got a theme, and the theme is of an underwater ecosystem.
Heck, you say, I hate all of earth! Not to fear, unusually spiteful player! Rocket League even has a map in outer space that’s called Starbase Arc, which is a trippy little arena with comets and the vast emptiness outside the glass enclosure.
Rules
It’s kind of a lame title, but that’s the one I’m sticking with: Rules. What do you need to know about each of the maps? Do Wasteland’s storms blind you? Does AquaDome have a flood and can the sharks get you? What about Starbase Arc? Will the gravity mess with you?
The short answer is… no. All the maps are the same in gameplay. Of course, each one has cool little tricks that you can figure out with practice. Some of the maps have slightly differently angled surfaces. For example, Wasteland tends to slope more downward so the ball will roll to the center easier than some of the other arenas. It’s stuff like that which serve to differentiate the arenas. There’s absolutely no way for you to get out of the arenas (unless there’s a crazy glitch, and I’ve only heard of a few occasions of that happening anyway) and, consequently, nothing can get in. No matter how close that meteor looks, or how intimidatingly the shark is eyeballing you as it cruises around, you’re perfectly safe in the glass dome. Short of the cosmetic differences, there’s not much to hurt your gameplay or, alternatively, help you. You will come to like certain maps more than others. Me? I like Utopia Coliseum. Why you ask? What perfect secrets does it hold? None. I just like it! I can’t explain it, but the ball seems to move in a way that I like there. I don’t like Wasteland nearly as much because of how the ball rolls in a funky way sometimes. Never to fear! I have good news for you.
Preferred Maps
Okay, let me hit you up with some fantastic news. I’ve told ya that I like some maps more than others, and as you play more you will develop a similar situation. It might not be the same preferences that I have, but that’s fine. You do you! There’s going to be that one lucky map or two that you always seem to win at (for whatever reason, probably just luck of opponent or teammate/s) and the ones that no matter what, you always lose at. In layman’s terms, there will be some maps that you grin when it loads, and others that make you facepalm and groan when you see what it is.
The good news is that you can avoid those annoying maps that you don’t like! Yes, our good Rocket League thought of that. You can go to filters for searching for a game and there you can like and dislike certain maps. I’m not entirely sure how much it changes, but it’s cut back enormously on the maps I hate showing up and seemed to have increased the odds that one of my favorites appears.
Outliers
At the start, I said that there was a classic series of maps and arenas. True, but… also not true. Thought it’s not something you’ll stumble upon just by playing, you can select certain game modes that will change things for you. Let me give you an example—Hoops. It changes the whole “soccer goal” plan and replaces it with a couple of giant basketball hoops. The only way to score is to get the ball through the hoop, which is about eight thousand times harder than one might expect. It’s similar to the Ice Hockey mode to some degree.
There’s another mode that I feel I should tell you about, which is Dropshot. In fact, Dropshot is not a mode I enjoy, but I have friends that rave about it. Here’s the crazy thing about Dropshot: you don’t score through soccer goals, or a hockey net, or even basketball hoops. You score through the ground. Long story short, ya gotta hit the ball against the ground in a certain way to crack it enough to break through it, then come back and actually drive the ball down into the hole you’ve made to score. It’s complicated and crazy intense, but give it a shot!
Summary
That’s it, gang. That’s all I got for you today: a little guide about arenas or maps in Rocket League. Now, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: get out there and have some fun!
For more Rocket League, check this out: A Rocket League Trophy Guide to Get You on Pedestals
