Good news, Golden Drops are back!

It was a little disappointing not to see Golden Eggs return this easter just gone, but it looks like Psyonix, as per usual, had a slightly different plan up their sleeve.

To coincide with the brand new Knockout Bash game mode (more on that later), we currently have the opportunity to unlock Golden Gift Baskets, which function pretty much identically to other recent Golden drops, such as the Golden Gifts and the Golden Moons.

For the uninitiated amongst you, there’s usually a repeatable in-game challenge, typically to play 20 games, and this will reward you with a shiny golden drop. This can then be opened to give you a random item from the three series that it pulls from.

In the case of Golden Gift Baskets, the three are the Victory, Accelerator and Turbo series. At the top end you’ll be able to get Black Market drops like the 20XX decal from the Turbo series, or the Hellfire goal explosion from the Accelerator series. Of course, you're more likely to get rare items like the Kawaii decal for Masamune, but you never know!

If you don’t fancy trying your luck - Golden Gift Baskets are tradable, so why not list them on your favourite Rocket League trading platform? I hear RL Garage has a good one. Cool guys over there. If past drops are anything to go by they’ll probably be worth 120 to 150 credits after the first day or two, so you could make a tidy amount of free credits if you play enough to unlock them all.

Now then, onto knockout mode!

For a long time now, I think a lot of us have been feeling that Rocket League needs to freshen up a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, I obviously love the game, and I have so much to thank it for. But come on. It’s been almost seven years, and the gameplay now is pretty much identical to what it was back in 2015. 

Non-standard maps have been complained about out of existence, additional game modes have been introduced, then ignored. Limited time events have come and gone - but nothing’s really stuck. It’s always just been two teams aiming to get a thing in a goal.

It’s not always been this way. You may have heard of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars, Rocket League’s PS3 exclusive predecessor from the late 2000's. That game had its flaws... many, many flaws, but what it did have was variety. Besides the main car football mode, it had mini games and cool challenges and a bunch of other stuff. Honestly, as a big PS3 fanboy back in the day, I’m quite frustrated that I didn’t find it until after discovering the Rocket League alpha.

Knockout mode sort of reminds me of this - it’s Rocket League’s first step away from ball-in-goal gameplay, and honestly... it’s an absolute blast.

Basically, it’s an eight player battle royale - last battle car standing wins. The main aim is to stay on the platform whilst also removing your opponents from it. Fall off of the platform, lose a life. Get caught by a laser grid or hit one of the spikey… things? Lose a life. Leave the safe zone? Lose a life. Lose three lives? You’re eliminated.

In trying to get your opponents out of the arena and defending your position, you have three main tools at your disposal - you can attack opponents, grab opponents, or you can defend yourself from your opponents attacks.

On top of that, you’ve got a few more additional features, you can now triple jump and dodge four times, you regain boost while on the ground, boost is more powerful, jumps are more powerful. All of this allows you greater control of your battle car and to get back into the arena if 

There are also three brand new maps to play in, starting from the relatively simple Quadron, through Carbon, and onto the skull-shaped Calavera. Each of them have different layouts and hazards, and this really affects the gameplay.

Honestly, there’s a lot to unwrap here and it would be easier for you to just go and play it. To incentivise you, there are more challenges which unlock a bunch of spring-themed items, my highlight of which is the Flutterby Global Decal. Then there’s also the Florescence Wheels, Monarch boost and topper, Springtide decal for Octane, and the Sapling antenna. To top things off, there are then the Rosie and Smiling Sapling player banners too. I sure hope you like butterflies and flowers.

Will Knockout Mode keep people’s interests after the initial hype dies down? I have no idea. What I can say is enjoy it while you can, because it is a limited time mode, for now at least. According to Psyonix's official article on the matter, Knockout Mode and Golden Gift Baskets are around from April 27th through to May 10th.