Rocket League Vehicle Hitboxes Ranked And Explained:
Let's Find The Hitbox That Matches YOUR Play Style!
Not all cars in Rocket League are the same. They may not travel at different speeds. Their aerial handling is identical. But, buried within each hitbox is a treasure trove of hidden variables. Every car hides an array of strengths and weaknesses.
RL Hitboxes aren’t all distinctive, either. Not since 2017, at least.
Rocket League Patch 1.35 established hitbox standardization. Nowadays, every car in the game falls into one of 6 camps.
Hitbox categories ultimately dictate:
- Wheel Size
- Axle Positioning
- Length
- Height
- Width
As a result, these statistics alter how your vehicle drives:
- Turning Radius
- Powerslide Handling
- Impact Angles
- Boost Degradation
Hitbox standardization was an early attempt to splash car variety into Rocket League’s meta. It failed. Psyonix catered to our familiarity with certain hitboxes. Ideally, a player could pick up a variety of new chassis adjacent to their preference.
If anything, a majority of RL cars swallowed a nerf. They now rock crazy mismatched hitboxes – guilty of forging nonsensical taps. Many wheel hitboxes misalign with their visual models.
Having said that, Flakes toppled opponents in professional 1v1 matches using randomized vehicles. The “Octane is the unequivocally best hitbox” mindset reeks of placebo.
Use the car that feels right to you.
You aren’t sacrificing competitive viability by rocking an Endo or Werewolf preset. I promise.
But, if you’re itching to climb ranks, you’ll want to understand your vehicle’s perks like the back of your hand.
Subtle differences between hitboxes alter brisk competitive games like Rocket League. Every frame matters. So, today I’ll share and evaluate data recovered by Reddit user HalfwayDead. He hosts the Rocket Science YouTube channel.
We’ll crunch some concrete data. We’ll analyze how hitbox differences affect your live gameplay. Then, we’ll highlight the best Rocket League car for your play style.
Tracking Updates And Changes to RL Vehicle Hitboxes
A mountain of outdated information floats throughout the web. Heck, some top-ranking sites spout savage lies.
Let me clear the air.
When we finish, I want you strutting around as a self-proclaimed RL hitbox scholar. It’ll beef up your resume more than your underwater-basket-weaving degree.
The original vehicle standardization patch birthed 5 Rocket League hitbox categories.
Since introduction, we’ve seen tweaks.
- First, Kuxir97, a well-decorated RLCS pro, grumbled about his Batmobile transitioning to Plank. The Plank hitbox emulated the Mantis, which gained popularity as a defensive blob of rejection. Anyway, Psyonix issued an emergency hotfix. They reverted the 2016 Batmobile to its original state without modifying other Planks. It was a minor tweak to wheel placement – a less accurate one, at that. But players had already grown acclimated to the original model.
- Patch v1.44 moved the back axle forward on all presets. This further altered wheel location and vehicle handling. The change occurred to round out decimal values, alleviating server strain. This change eliminated server-side de-synching.
- As hype around the Mantis dwindled, Psyonix reverted the plank hitbox to mirror the ever-famous 2016 Batmobile in patch v1.56. Psyonix updated the hitbox to promote the Artemis – a car from their forecasted Rocket Pass.
- During patch v1.81, Psyonix re-introduced the Merc hitbox in preparation of unveiling Fortnite’s Buttle Bus into Rocket League.
Today, we can lump all RL cars into these hitbox groups:
- Octane
- Dominus
- Breakout
- Hybrid
- Plank (Formerly Batmobile)
- Merc
One last thing before I knock out the formalities.
Here’s the official list of every car categorized by hitbox. I’d wager a few may surprise you. For example, the Dark Knight Tumbler uses the Octane hitbox, and the ‘89 and ‘22 Batmobiles sport the Dominus hitbox. Most cars embody the Octane hitbox, parading over 35 models today. The Merc hitbox is the least widespread, with only 4 choices.
Rocket League 3D Hitbox Visualization
Before delving into specific data, I’ll drop reference images to help you visualize RL hitboxes in a 3D realm. There isn’t any complex geometry occurring. Simplified rectangles hover above a separate set of wheels. These rudimentary components interact with gravity to mimic a loose suspension system.
RL suspensions are dynamic. Your wheels droop down as you rise from the ground. They sink when cornering or landing. I’ll dive into vehicle handling later.
There’s also a random imaginary dot poised in each hitbox. Again, I’ll cover that soon. For now, let’s check out the blueprints Trelgne laid out. Here’s a link to my source.
RL hitboxes rest higher than you might expect. A forward and upward offset from visual models galvanizes a universal rotation axis. Psyonix wants all cars to feel similar.
Vehicle Hitboxes Ranked And Niched
I’ll give brief hitbox overviews for my skimmers.
But I encourage you to stick around for the data and insight afterward. If you do, you’ll feel an intimate connection with your preset – one liable to spark jealousy from your girl.
1st Place: Hybrid
The Hybrid doesn’t top many field test results. Still, no vehicle dodges the back of the pack with such elegance.
The Hybrid delivers what it promises. It does everything – all at once. You’re rivaling the Dominus’ length, might, and steering – while sacrificing only 6% of the Octane’s height.
The outcome is glorious: A vehicle that surpasses even Mr. Plank in overall surface area.
Still, this hitbox yearns for the “Fennec treatment.” One vehicle meshing into the hitbox perimeter could shatter the RL competitive metagame.
As it stands, all vehicles hoisting the fierce Hybrid banner mismatch the hitbox. My infant daughter could trace more accurate lines… and she grabs crayons by the fistful.
The Silvia S13 aligns a cut above the Skyline, but she’s still short. The Venom matches the width but swings another whiff in terms of height.
They all do.
Every Hybrid car suffers the fate of abysmal design options, too.
It never fails. Veterans hop over to Hybrid on a whim, groveling over her fluid performance. When a hot new Octane decal sends us drooling, we inevitably retreat.
Such is life.
Final Verdict: The Hybrid is arguably the best hitbox in Rocket League. Unfortunately, it’s also Psyonix’s red-headed step-child that beckons for support. Touches feel unnatural compared to other hitbox options. But, make no mistake, a talented Hybrid operator squanders enemy defenses.
2nd Place: Octane
The Octane hitbox is overrated. But her meta-defining legacy remains justified.
It’s the second tallest car in the game.
Octane hitboxes excel in ground game like no other. Bounce dribbles earn a high opportunity window, peppered with flavorful pops. Conventional ball-carry dribbles pose higher maneuverability in an Octane, too.
Blind 50/50 challenges often pan out favorably.
But second tallest isn’t enough to warrant a trophy on its own.
At high speeds, the Octane rolls into early powerslides with unrivaled transferable momentum. Its short chassis makes flip reset alignment a breeze.
The Octane’s visual wheels align with their hitbox counterparts! It’s a rarity. There’s a very real chance that fact single-handedly accounts for why pros feel so cozy in Octanes.
This hitbox resonates a fearless energy that translates to confidence and agility.
Still, the Octane displays weakness. She has underwhelming strength. Her disjointed roll axis dampens consistency. She also struggles to chain freestyle mechanics.
Final Verdict: The Octane isn’t the most destructive hitbox on the market, but it’s ‘ol’ reliable.’ She allows margins of error. She side-flips wider. She wiggles faster. The Octane has a higher skill floor. It’s no perk to scoff at when we’re all cursed with imperfect human hands (and minds.)
3rd Place: Breakout
You might be surprised to hear this: The Breakout is like Dominus’ delinquent older sibling with a wicked chokehold. Everything the Dominus attempts, the Breakout does just a little bit better. It’s longer. It sits lower to the ground. Breakout wheels twirl donuts around the Dom once they’re all revved up.
Aligning flip resets requires nuance, but the Breakout pops the ball earlier. The nose may feel stubby and narrow, but it’s a blessing to overall control during air dribbles.
And no vehicle rips a musty flick double tap as nasty as a Breakout. The root joint sits perfect. You’ll ricochet the ball straight back into your lap from half-field.
Driving the Breakout demands precision, but it proposes the highest skill ceiling of any hitbox. It feels stiff and wily; but, if you master it, you’ll accomplish the unthinkable.
Final Verdict: The Breakout offers flawless specs that appeal to freestylers – at the cost of tighter consistency and greater game sense. In the right hands, she’ll fill her enemies’ hearts with unrelinquished dread. To anyone else, she feels unresponsive and unhinged. The Breakout has 25% less time than Octane to lob a bounce dribble. Her steering cooldown churns like tar, cycling at roughly one degree per tick. Treat her with extreme care; however, and she flourishes.
4th Place: Merc
While the Merc underperformed in handling metrics, it settled into its niche admirably.
The Merc suits players who revel in challenging everything. She’ll reward you for flinging the ball with reckless abandon. She appeals to crypt-keepers eager to stack demolitions. Her deep bellows spill ruthless carnage. She attracts the anti-heroes of our era, the forlorn souls longing to witness our world burn to an impalpable crisp.
The Merc is a midfielder’s dream. It’s also the quintessential beginner’s car.
In many ways, the Merc is an exaggerated Octane. Its narrow, tall chassis gives it a competitive edge for agile dribble hooks. It belches wider bounce dribble windows than Octane, too!
But her ground game falls short after that. It’s the only car that never truly outshines Octane steering. The Merc’s peculiar resting angle leaves ground touches feeling underwhelming.
Final Verdict: The Merc is Rocket League’s tank or barbarian-class vehicle. She’s a big dumb brick that spews dialogue about how badly she wants to smash. She ripped away Octane’s greatest asset, and gnarled her newfangled prowess to crown herself an agent of irrefutable chaos.
5th Place: Dominus
The Dominus packs nasty front flip flicks only outdone by skilled Plank or Breakout users.
It boasts finesse tailored for players who loathe fidgeting with constant button clicks.
Most importantly of all, Dominus touches are consistent. Any shot that feels awkward coming off this car boils down to unfamiliarity. The Dom doesn’t pitch curve balls. Period.
The Dominus looks stunning. It breathes the exact unquenchable bloodlust you’d expect from a pristine classic muscle car. Heck, most vehicles in the Dom Squad look menacing. The Dominus gang gobbles up most of the licensed vehicles, too.
Final Verdict: The Dominus hitbox honestly performed middling through most stat checks. In terms of versatility, the Hybrid outclasses it. Her affinity for freestyling collapses against the Breakout. The Dom isn’t incompetent. But the love it fosters roots from RL falling into an Octane-heavy meta. It counters the Octane, making it a solid off-meta selection. A timely speedflip helps it pummel through Octane 50/50’s. Dom aerials outreach the Octane.
6th Place: Plank
Holy Kuxir Pinch, Batman!
This car is wide. Planks also rival the Breakout in terms of length.
The Plank bombs field tests so horrifically, she manifests her own brand of fortitude.
She’s eccentric. I say that in the most affectionate way possible.
Unresponsive steering transforms the Plank into a ceiling-shuffling monstrosity. It’s a colossal sideswipe target. But her elongated bones transmogrify her into a defensive stalwart.
The Plank nestles itself so low into the ground, I guarantee you’ll watch stray balls whizz overhead. The others? You’ll clobber them with the brutality of a malicious steel paddle.
The Plank makes methodical shadow defense her primary hustle. At low speeds, you’ll stomp more terrain. And the Pank’s nerfed high-speed handling conserves more boost than any other hitbox.
Final Verdict: Look, if Kux can rock this thing in the RLCS circuit, so can you. If you fancy yourself a creative mastermind, the Plank rises to the pedestal. She’s unreadable. You’ll send even elite defenders scrambling. Praise the wild card!
Understanding Standardized Hitbox Functionality
Universal Hitbox Data
Time to concoct a sweet nectarine of beautiful numbers.
Here’s the stuff that NEVER changes regardless of car selection:
- All vehicles register as the same weight (without external mutators.)
- All suspensions operate at the same strength. Discrepancies between flip and turn data revolve around wheel size and axle distance.
- All aerial handling is uniform. Sam Mish outlined a detailed aerial handling guide geared toward aspiring bot developers.
- Flips utilize “burst physics.” Psyonix categorizes dodges as “impulses.” Vehicles never flip faster than others. If you experience a player who dodges with grace, odds are they have a firm grasp on [flip canceling.] If a car feels like it shaves the ground, you’re not hopping high enough.
- Cars within the same hitbox category exhibit identical behavior.
From here on out, I’m introducing a measurement called “unreal units” (written as uu.) They gauge speed and distances throughout Rocket League’s coding.
Basic Variance: Length/Width/Height
(And How It Influences Your Gameplay)
Let’s unearth the vehicle stat comparisons. I’m tidying up data by rounding to hundredths. You can peruse fuller values in this Reddit thread.
- Hybrid: 486.74uu
- Plank: 485.76uu (99.8%)
- Dominus: 485.02uu (99.6%)
- Breakout: 484.62uu (99.6%)
- Merc: 478.18uu (98.2%)
- Octane: 476.74uu (97.9%)
- Breakout – 131.49uu
- Plank – 128.82uu (98.0% max reach*)
- Dominus – 127.93uu (97.3% max reach*)
- Hybrid – 127.02uu (96.6% max reach*)
- Merc – 120.72uu (91.8% max reach*)
- Octane – 118.01uu (89.7% max reach*)
*While a correlation between length and reach exists, a vehicle’s reach stems from its root joint locale.
Length advantages –
- There’s a reason we call long cars paddles. They provide more net coverage, bulldozing through tight defensive situations.
- The car body absorbs less impact before connecting with the ball on flip resets.
- Potent pinches.
- Flicks foster more raw power.
- Forward and diagonal flips exert more mass onto the ball.
- You gain aerial reach.
- Elongated high-speed turns are sharper.
Length disadvantages –
- Flip resets become difficult to align.
- Half flips feel clunky.
- Certain flip cancels and landing angles result in grinding against the ground.
- Shorter cars can dodge forward or diagonally from lower heights.
- Wall recoveries devour more time and effort.
- Length on a vehicle’s tail end is generally useless in competitive ranks.
- More distance between axles means your car takes longer for its steering to charge.
- Plank – 84.67uu
- Octane – 84.20uu (99.4% girth)
- Dominus – 83.28uu (98.4% girth)
- Hybrid – 82.19uu (97.1% girth)
- Breakout – 80.52uu (95.1% girth)
- Merc – 76.71uu (90.6% girth)
Width advantages –
- Fewer whiffs on all head-on collisions, including powerslide cuts.
- Easier to leverage mass on the ball.
- Consistent flat-nosed taps.
- More impactful 50/50 coverage from all forms of direct challenges.
Width disadvantages –
- Sluggish ball control adjustments (Ex. dribble hooks from side to side and air dribble refinement taps.)
- Less consistent corner taps.
- Struggle with dodging sideways or diagonally from shorter heights.
- Merc – 41.66
- Octane – 36.16 (86.8%)
- Hybrid – 34.16 (82.0%)
- Dominus – 31.30 (75.1%)
- Breakout – 30.30 (72.7%)
- Plank – 29.39 (70.5%)
Note: Height scales a near-30% gap between hitboxes. That’s triple the variance seen in length or width. Before the Merc shook up the equation, all vehicles huddled within a 18.7% margin between Octane and Plank.
Advantages for the tall –
- Grounded 50’s annihilate opponents.
- The opportunity window for bounce dribbles increases.
- Dribble turns permit more leverage before melting the ball into the ground.
- You can leverage wall catches from a further distance without going airborne.
- Your demo collision area spreads upward/downward. You’ll thwart evasive targets.
Advantages for the short –
- Demos aren’t your thing? Less surface area makes you a slippery head-on demo target.
- Shorter cars boast tighter angle control. I’ll explain why when we hit the root joint.
- Touches from lower resting cars pull more altitude or distance from the wall.
- Generally speaking, low cars pack robust flicks.
- Less height is the primary contributing factor to generating speedier wall pinches.
- In a shorter vehicle, you can side flip from lower hops without scraping surfaces.
- Air roll precision increases on shorter vehicles thanks to a more defined center of mass.
Understanding Your Vehicles Root Joint
Length isn’t everything.
Yeah, I know what I said. It’s the same garbage line your ex-girlfriend fed you. Then she scurried off with the Batmobile-main who boomeranged triple-psycho-redirects in your ranked lobby.
Hear me out:
You could argue you’ll slam more dunks with extra surface area, but that info fades into obscurity once you nail consistent nose taps.
It ain’t girth, either…
All vehicle widths dwell within a 10% margin… and the hitbox skewing data that high is the least popular in Rocket League.
Something behind the scenes decides your shot intensity. It’s your rotation axis. You might hear this referred to as your pivot point, center of mass, or your center of rotation. I’ll employ a term coined by the Rocket Science YouTube Channel: The root joint.
Early RL theorycrafting threads led the community to realize vehicles with frontal mass leveraged stronger spikes on the ball. Ultimately, this pushed Psyonix toward standardized hitboxes.
But subtle variances still endure between our 6 gilded car-ball knights.
First, we’ll knock out the basics:
- The root joint determines your flip axis and your air roll axis.
- 100% of the time, further locations from your root joint yield mightier shots. It’s why skilled players hone front-corner shots.
- The location of your root joint dictates your flips. Cars within the same hitbox cluster NEVER flip differently. Your beloved GC friend founded his counter-argument upon hearsay and imagination. We love him anyway.
How The “Root Joint” Impacts General Ball Touches in Rocket League
Make no mistake. The root joint influences all touches in Rocket League. If you’re grounded, stationary, and wiggling your wheels furiously – the imaginary dot still wholeheartedly regulates your touch.
The Octane’s well-placed root joint grants it 1% more reach than the Merc, despite the Mystery Machine’s 2.71uu extension.
I’ll pluck a quote straight from Corey Davis:
“The direction a ball bounces is determined by a vector drawn from the center of the car to the collision point, NOT the angle of the hitbox surface.”
Translation:
Psyonix sprinkled predictability to your touches by creating wildly unrealistic physics. The shape of your bumper is irrelevant.
During Alpha testing, Psyonix splattered realism into vehicle touches. Corey Davis stated at a GDC conference that the community complained “Psyonix ruined their game.”
He cited his favorite quote:
“This game is driven by greed and lazy design, it’s as simple as that, and I sincerely hope it fails. There are far too many other better independent games out there by developers who actually care about and respect their customers for Rocket League to deserve any kind of success.”
The player who voiced that early opinion? None other than the future RLCS pro, Gambit.
Meanwhile, standardized maps devoured a buffet of hatred for “lack of variety.” It’s funny. Nowadays, we roar when the edges of the map are a few pixels off-center… or when our kickoff position doesn’t align with a particular boost pad.
We’re a fickle breed.
Ranking Vehicle “Nosiness”
A retracted center of mass splashes consistency into strong well-aimed shots.
- Breakout Front End: 78.25uu
- Hybrid Front End: 77.39uu (98.9%)
- Plank Front End: 73.42uu (93.8%)
- Dominus Front End: 72.96uu (93.2%)
- Octane Front End: 72.88uu (93.1%)
- Merc Front End: 71.74uu (91.7%)
The Breakout, Hybrid, and Plank lead the pack in front length. The Hybrid and Breakout forge the largest gap, obliterating 3rd place by 5-6%.
On one hand, you’ll need to adapt to your massive honker. Preventing clumsy ground scrapes on front flips warrants a cognizant mind when transitioning from micro-machines like Octane.
The Octane and Hybrid flaunt a high nosiness percentage. Higher percentages help you pull formidable scoop flicks from lower heights without kicking gravel. Forward-facing musty flicks from a ball carry come to mind.
On the other hand, you’ll rake in serious benefits:
- Nosiness enhances forward dodge shots and frontal touches. That includes flashy flicks like JZR’s, Musty’s, and all your spiced-up backflip flicks.
- A longer front end unfurls aerial reach – providing a boon to your sky-50’s and fast aerial setup speed.
- If we factor in the Hybrid’s short axle spread, nosiness reduces its accidental front wheel slaps during aerials. (The awkward moments that lunge your car downward mid-attack. I’m looking at you, wall plays!)
- Nosier cars must tilt at a more diagonal angle to perform proper Kuxir Twists. But this generates more vigor from twirly aerial taps (such as redirects.)
Overall, I’d classify nosiness as a win.
Comparing Hitbox Tails
- Octane Tail End: 45.13uu
- Merc Tail End: 48.98uu (+3.85)
- Hybrid Tail End: 49.63uu (+4.50)
- Breakout Tail End: 53.25uu (+8.12)
- Dominus Tail End: 54.96uu (+9.83)
- Plank Tail End: 55.40uu (+10.27)
The graph reveals a surmountable gap between halves! And it pokes its head in gameplay.
With a longer tail:
- Backflips and half flips gain reach.
- Forward flicks pulverize nets.
- Wavedashes land earlier.
Booty touches pack more punch, too. You could argue that beefier tails prevail when chaining reverse touches into half flips. You’ll conquer other desperate defensive maneuvers, too.
But, let’s face it, those scenarios aren’t ideal. They only appear post-blunder.
Tail mass wastes precious potential.
The Octane, Merc, and Hybrid hitboxes burrow less mass behind their root joints. The result? They rake in nimble landing recoveries.
Every time you slingshot into the sky, you’ll crash back onto solid ground. A shorter rear end also minimizes the risk of dragging rocks during liftoff. That’s relevant if you plan on cranking your aerial sensitivity to the ceiling.
Clean recoveries are king in my book.
But I do admit… The Plank’s exaggerated back end elicits authoritative flicks.
I’ll let you weigh the opportunity cost.
Root Joint Height
- Octane RJ Height: 17.00uu
- Hybrid RJ Height: 17.01uu (+0.01)
- Dominus RJ Height: 17.05uu (+0.04)
- Breakout RJ Height: 18.33uu (+1.33)
- Plank RJ Height: 18.65uu (+1.65)
- Merc RJ Height: 18.78uu (+1.78)
An interesting note: A near-perfect inverse correlation exists between root joint height and total height. Meanwhile, we can attribute the Merc’s elevated joint to a sizable portion of its height over Octane. Mercs stand 13.2% taller than Octane, while Merc root joints sit 9.5% higher.
Anyway…
Unlike other cars, Octane and Hybrid hitboxes rest above their respective root joints. Combined with their towering height, this extends your roll axis. Side flips cover more ground, and air roll taps increase margins of error.
A high joint on a short hitbox increases your odds of suspension drag when landing. It accounts for why many players find the Batmobile, Breakout, and Dominus lethargic. High-jointed cars claim more momentum and less arc from low 50’s. (It muffles your pre-jumped challenges against them.)
This combination also forces them to eat a timing disadvantage from diagonal flip 50’s. Luckily, they sport a longer chassis. They can mitigate the loss with a traditional front flip 50. They’ll leverage their back end to craft a wide angle to point the ball.
But I’ll shout a disclaimer for the Breakout: It’s short, narrow, and has the most centered root joint. This car loses all challenges except premeditated dunks. On mirrored 50/50’s, it’s the worst in the game.
Hitbox Tilt Variance (Resting Angles)
One last thing before I slide into to vehicle handling.
You’ve probably noticed some cars naturally hurl the ball higher than others. Hitboxes settle at different inclinations, which affects hood and rooftop-based ball pops.
Two factors determine hitbox tilt: Back wheel height and axle spread.
A steeper forward tilt generates loftier lobs from grounded hood touches. This removes hurdles from retaining possession. For example, ground-to-air dribbles reside within Breakout turf. Still, too much upward arc diminishes shots without a proper follow-up.
So, I’d gear cars with exaggerated forward tilts toward experienced players.
Every vehicle (not named Merc) features larger back tires than front tires.
Plank:
- Front Wheel Radius: 12.5uu
- Rear Wheel Radius: 17.0uu
- Total Differential = 4.5uu
Octane:
- Front Wheel Radius: 12.5uu
- Rear Wheel Radius: 15.0uu
- Total Differential = 2.5uu
Hybrid:
- Front Wheel Radius: 12.5uu
- Rear Wheel Radius: 15.0uu
- Total Differential = 2.5uu
Dominus:
- Front Wheel Radius: 12.0uu
- Rear Wheel Radius: 13.5uu
- Total Differential = 1.5uu
Breakout:
- Front Wheel Radius: 13.5uu
- Rear Wheel Radius: 15.0uu
- Total Differential = 1.5uu
Merc:
- Front Wheel Radius: 15.0uu
- Rear Wheel Radius: 15.0uu
- Total Differential = 0.0uu
Here’s where things get weird…
As the wheel size gap shrinks, forward tilts swell. It’s because longer cars lean toward wider axle spreads – dwindling the impact of elevated back wheels. It feels like an intentional balancing act, but significant variance still exists.
Once we factor in axle distance, we get a chart that looks like this:
- Breakout Resting Angle: -0.98°
- Dominus Resting Angle: -0.96° (2° loss)
- Octane Resting Angle: -0.55° (43° loss)
- Hybrid Resting Angle: -0.55° (43° loss)
- Plank Resting Angle: -0.34° (64° loss)
- Merc Resting Angle: 0.28° (126° loss)
The deeper we dive, the more Mercs sparkle like unicorns.
Re-introducing the Merc salvaged Rocket League’s long-forgotten backward tilt. It solidifies the Merc as the #1 powerhouse for grounded 50/50 challenges across the board.
But the Merc’s unwieldy tilt harbors a crucial drawback. Every head-on touch moves like a butterfly drenched in molasses.
Anyway…
I’ll list my major takeaways:
- Cars with less negative incline require less tilt to achieve optimal fast aerials.
- If you want to [plunge into freestyling,] the Dominus and Breakout lob grounded balls best.
- Vehicles with less negative incline absorb more impact from the ball without bouncing it. The plank hitboxes’ rooftop hit sensitivity enables an extra 9% force absorption before recoiling. This simplifies dribble catches.
- A steeper negative incline aligns roll taps to your vehicle’s root joint.
- The Octane and Hybrid angles are identical, which explains why many content creators claim to find Hybrids familiar when experimenting with hitboxes.
- The Batmobile’s unique angle threatens devastating bullet hits from nearly any ground play. It’s perfect for breakaway goals. Otherwise, you’re sacrificing unsavable lobs.
- The Merc hitbox feels like a dumb brick because its forward tilt is too extreme of a change.
- Since suspensions react dynamically, no correlation exists between resting angle and landing wavedashes. That includes sonic flips.
RL Hitboxes Affect Vehicle Handling
How Wheels Stack: Explaining RL’s Unintuitive Wheel Behavior
Remember, your hitbox wheels rarely align with the pixels on-screen. It’s why some vehicles wavedash despite no wheels visibly touching the ground. It also explains why you’ll occasionally pick up a 3-wheel flip reset or miss one that appears to land.
RL wheels soak pressure – but they don’t apply any to other surfaces. Have you ever taken credit for a shot after bearing no imprint on the ball? It’s because pressure only applies to the ball once your wheels retract far enough for the bottom of your hitbox to connect.
Even after making genuine contact, you’ve absorbed considerable impact. Your touches graze. This is especially true for cars with fatty tires.
For example, the Dominus rolls on the tiniest wheels in the game. Therefore, its wheel brushes stab the hardest. Then comes Hybrid and Octane. Then Breakout. Then Merc.
Look, I already drew a gorgeous graph about wheel sizes above.
Here’s the main takeaway:
Your wheels affect your handling, despite their strange behavior toward other surfaces.
How Wheels Stack: Outlining Suspension
Suspensions remain universal between all vehicle hitboxes in RL. When jumping, your wheels interact with gravity. They continue to drop until they spill 12 unreal units below “resting position.”
While grounded, suspension height bears no effect on acceleration speeds. Handling, however, alters according to pressure on your suspension. Thanks to momentum preservation, you can slightly mitigate landing and taking bumps with powerslide. But you’ll never neuter the offsets these actions present to steering.
Wheel Height, Width, and Axle Distance:
In a physics-based game like Rocket League, wheel dimensions matter.
I already laid out a graph about radii, but I want to highlight that it influences your steering, too!
Likewise, broader tires turn slower.
(Poor steering comes with merits. Cars with rapid high-speed turning guzzle more boost.)
But I want to focus on axle distance. It impacts steering speed, turn radius, momentum preservation, wavedashes, flip resets, and recoveries. That’s a ton of weight to carry!
Axle Differentials (Longest to Shortest)
- Breakout: 87.25uu
- Plank: 85.40uu (-2.1% distance)
- Hybrid: 85.25uu (-2.2% distance)
- Dominus: 85.05uu (-2.5% distance)
- Octane: 85.00uu (-2.6% distance)
- Merc: 85.00uu (-2.6% distance)
Luckily, the Breakout is the only major outlier. Otherwise, this stat could muddle the RL meta.
Wider axle differentials
- Expedite wavedash landings
- Alleviate landing recoil
- Upgrade maximum steering capacity (at the cost of charge rate)
- Shorten relative suspension height:
- Flip resets to connect with the bottom of your actual hitbox earlier. It’s the reason Ganer, a Breakout main, holds the world record for chaining flip resets.
- Bumps require less force to lunge a car off of the ground.
Shorter axle differentials
- Entice heavier wavedash recoil, expanding the window for chaining dashes.
- Provide less oversteer after completing a turn, reducing the need for countersteer inputs.
- Ease the process of aligning flip resets.
Since axle spreads remain similar, there’s a correlation between shorter cars enclosing more mass between axles. I haven’t pinpointed gameplay effects. Still, it ties together a mental picture of your vehicle’s size, root joint offset, and axle spread combo.
- Octane: 72.0%
- Merc: 70.4%
- Hybrid: 67.1%
- Dominus: 66.5%
- Breakout: 66.4%
- Plank: 66.3%
Max Speed Peak Angular Velocity
We can mine the info above to track how sharp a vehicle turns, but…
Rocket Science already ran some max speed evaluations. Bless him. I’ll break it down further for all my boost bandits out there.
- Breakout = 2.043rad/s
- Dominus = 2.037rad/s (99.7% of peak)
- Hybrid = 2.021rad/s (98.9% of peak)
- Plank = 1.993rad/s (97.6% of peak)
- Octane = 1.975rad/s (96.7% of peak)
- Merc = 1.957rad/s (95.8% of peak)
Octane ranks 5th. Bet you didn’t see that coming!
It’s worth noting the Plank ranked alongside the Hybrid before reverting to the Batmobile’s wheel placement.
These numbers are somewhat deceptive. Just because a vehicle turns harder doesn’t mean it turns faster.
For example, the Breakout edges the Dominus for first place. But, the Dominus reaches its max steering capabilities at brisk pace.
Understanding Steering Responsiveness
You’ve probably been scratching your head as to why everyone selects the Octane. It’s finally her turn to shine.
Turning takes time to “charge” to max angular velocity.
It’ll feel like we’re splitting hairs here. I get that. Aside from the Merc, all vehicles remain within 10% steering margins throughout all physics ticks.
Still, vehicles capable of dramatic turns from the get-go feel more “responsive.” And, in terms of responsiveness, the Octane reigns supreme.
These were the values shown in 2019 by the Rocket Science YouTube channel. Since then, Patch 1.89 (Dec. 2020) allegedly removed friction delay. I rummaged through updated GitHub dumps and didn’t notice dramatic changes.
Still…
This data is subjective.
HalfwayDead busted his butt formulating steering snappiness. I respect his outcome. But I should highlight that his algorithm leans heavily into the first 4 physics ticks – accounting for 52% of the final solution.
To put that into perspective, that’s 2 frames at 60 fps. (Or 4 frames at 120 fps.)
That forges a spectacular snappiness formula, but I want to paint a fuller picture.
The Octane charges more angular velocity until the 18th tick. Then, every vehicle gradually surpasses it. By the quarter-second mark, every car already outpaces the Octane, barring Planks.
Meanwhile, another anomaly arises for the Merc. It steers best around tick 22-30, then plummets back into oblivion.
- Octane: 0.2894
- Hybrid: 0.2755 (95.2% of top performance)
- Dominus: 0.2730 (94.3% of top performance)
- Breakout: 0.2629 (90.8% of top performance)
- Plank: 0.2610 (90.1% of top performance)
- Merc: 0.0972 (33.5% of top performance)
Notes: The first tick is where the Octane zooms ahead of her competition. But Hybrids have similar wheel data, bestowing them a unique position. They sacrifice minimal haste while pulling stellar overall steering capacity.
- Octane: 0.5208
- Hybrid: 0.4978 (95.6% of top performance)
- Dominus: 0.4936 (94.8% of top performance)
- Breakout: 0.4760 (91.4% of top performance)
- Plank: 0.4734 (90.9% of top performance)
- Merc: 0.1974 (37.9% of top performance)
Tick-to-tick gap change:
- Merc: +4.4%
- Hybrid: +0.4%
- Dominus: +0.5%
- Breakout: +0.8%
- Plank: +0.8%
Notes: Here’s where the Plank begins to trail behind the herd – thanks to the Batmobile hitbox patch. It isn’t gaining any more momentum than the Breakout. It’s a serious nerf; but, again, this occurred due to community feedback.
- Octane: 0.7165
- Hybrid: 0.6876 (96.0% of top performance)
- Dominus: 0.6822 (95.2% of top performance)
- Breakout: 0.6589 (92.0% of top performance)
- Plank: 0.6562 (91.6% of top performance)
- Merc: 0.2986 (41.7% of top performance)
Tick-to-tick gap change:
- Merc: +3.8%
- Hybrid: +0.4%
- Dominus: +0.4%
- Breakout: +0.6%
- Plank: +0.7%
Notes: A trend emerges. Aside from awkward rounding, you can see the Dominus pulling ahead of Hybrid in terms of angular velocity change, and the Plank and Breakout have settled into their respective incremental changes. Also, the Merc extorts 2 additional ticks to match the Octane’s first frame steering power. It’s the only vehicle that loses momentum in tick-to-tick gap changes. That’s horrendous.
- Dominus: 1.7727
- Octane: 1.7716 (99.9% of top performance)
- Hybrid: 1.7707 (99.9% of top performance)
- Breakout: 1.7418 (98.2% of top performance)
- Plank: 1.7316 (97.7% of top performance)
- Merc: 1.6057 (90.6% of top performance)
Notes: At a 25° turn, the Dominus now steers better than the Octane. By this tick, everyone but Merc falls within a 2.3% steering margin.
- Dominus: 1.7971
- Hybrid: 1.7943 (99.8% of top performance)
- Octane: 1.7923 (99.7% of top performance)
- Breakout: 1.7673 (98.3% of top performance)
- Plank: 1.7558 (97.7% of top performance)
- Merc: 1.6670 (92.8% of top performance)
Notes: The Dominus gains enough momentum that only the two slowest steering cars pull a positive gap change between ticks.
- Tick-to-tick gap change:
- Merc: +2.2%
- Breakout: +0.1%
- Plank: +0.0%
- Hybrid: -0.1%
- Octane: -0.2%
- Merc: 1.9594
- Dominus: 1.9019 (97.1% of top performance)
- Hybrid: 1.8949 (96.7% of top performance)
- Breakout: 1.8793 (95.9% of top performance)
- Octane: 1.8785 (95.8% of top performance)
- Plank: 1.8593 (94.9% of top performance)
Notes: While the Breakout emerges here, it’s worth noting it won’t out-steer the Hybrid until transcending a 78° turn. Worse yet, she only outperforms the Dominus in the final half dozen ticks. By that time, the numbers become pretty stagnant.
I won’t include the tick the Plank surpasses the Octane’s steering capacity because it occurs after a 107° turn. It’s competitively useless.
Basically, the more you powerslide, the better the Octane becomes.
But, again, the Hybrid ensnares a similar initial steering edge without sacrificing enough overall steering capabilities for Dominus to outclass it. It’s the reason I ranked Hybrid at #1.
HalfwayDead documented responsiveness in relation to turn frequency, too. Statistically speaking, pivots lean toward a quarter second. Rocket League’s tick rate is locked at 60. That sponges all data up to tick number 15.
Dom and Hybrid tie, but let’s read between the lines here. Turns that lean sharper sway toward Dominus, and the opposite rings true for Hybrid.
Understanding Oversteer And Countersteer
After completing a turn, inputs don’t immediately dissipate. There’s a tire-spinning cooldown similar to steering responsiveness. We call it release responsiveness.
I won’t dive into the specifics. It’s just the inverse of responsiveness. I’ll share the discoveries from the Rocket Science channel at face value.
- Octane: 1.67rad/sec (7.71° oversteer)
- Hybrid: 1.62rad/sec (8.58° oversteer)
- Dominus: 1.61rad/sec (8.85° oversteer)
- Plank: 1.60rad/sec (8.76° oversteer)
- Breakout: 1.58rad/sec (9.43° oversteer)
Less oversteer helps you churn more accurate hook shots.
This is the first and only time the Batmobile hotfix buffs the Plank hitbox, so savor it, my Kuxir fanboys. The Batmobile shifts directions 0.33 seconds faster than the OG Plank did! Meanwhile, the Breakout fumbles 22% further than Octane before returning to normal.
You can reduce the release responsiveness debuff by countersteering in the opposite direction! When you apply countersteer inputs, the Octane drops to 2.5° of unnecessary motion and the Breakout plunges to 2.94°. Every vehicle in between performs as you’d expect from viewing the graph.
Still, when we factor in multiple direction changes, the Octane accumulates a stern advantage in steering output.
Calculating Responsiveness at Lower Speeds
All cars reach peak responsiveness at velocities between 850-900uu/second. That’s roughly 37-39% of your max speed.
The perks highlighted on Octane responsiveness only dawn when sprints exceed ~1500uu per second. At slow speeds, Planks flaunt the maneuverability ribbon. That’s why the Plank stifles patient dribblers with immaculate shadow defense.
To nobody’s surprise, the Hybrid somehow sneaks her nose into second place again. Everyone else burrows in the middle of the pack.
Except the Octane, who bites the bullet for weakest low-speed steering.
But…
You’ll want to gauge realistic numbers. The most compelling chart contrasts full throttle with an empty boost reservoir. The Hybrid peaks here.
- Hybrid: 2.345
- Breakout: 2.336 (99.6% peak performance)
- Dominus: 2.336 (99.6% peak performance)
- Plank: 2.332 (99.4% peak performance)
- Merc: 2.331 (99.4% peak performance)
- Octane: 2.323 (99.1% peak performance)
All vehicles fall within a 1% margin. There’s nothing groundbreaking to report. That’s why we regurgitate max speed data when comparing Rocket League vehicle handling.
Conclusion: All Hitboxes Are Viable
Margins are low. Benefits derive from high and low numbers. Picking your RL car based on shininess won’t harm anyone.
If you want to continue rocking your Octane because you’ve got a sick set of Dune Racer decals, go for it! Want to troll your opponents in a Battle Bus? By all means, take the wheel, Rocketeer.
Because, at the end of the day, Rocket League boils down to sustaining a strong mental game. When you’re cheerful, you’re playing smart. Without a proper mindset, your mechanical skills and data crunch sessions prove fruitless.
I’ve enjoyed our time overanalyzing Rocket League hitboxes together. I bet you learned a lot. But now it’s time for you to cruise into the sunset with your cotton candy Buffy Sugo Dingo preset… and ignore what anyone thinks of it.
Your car is 100% capable, unlike you!
What a save!
What a save!
What a save!
Much love, and thanks for reading.