Rocket League will get a new Rocket Pass with challenges next week

Rocket League's next Rocket Pass launches on April 17, and like the past two it allows players to unlock cosmetics and loot box keys by earning Rocket Pass tiers.

These passes are a problem for me. The premium upgrade costs 10 Keys, or $10, and in theory that should cap my spending for a few months. Oh, but late on a Saturday night, while waiting for a teammate to get back from a fridge run, of course I'm going to buy a few more keys to peek inside all the crates cluttering my inventory. I can't help that I want more dumb wheels.

Speaking of dumb wheels, the items in Rocket Pass 3 can be previewed here, though without animation. I'm not in love with most of these rocket car decorations, though the selection is a bit better than it was in the previous two passes, in my view. I'm never going to use any of the dumb drone toppers and jolt bangles cluttering my inventory, but I could see the big salt shaker topper coming into play.

Aside from new items, Rocket Pass 3 brings the concept of challenges to the game. These are weekly goals that allow free and premium players to earn extra tier points along the way.

Thankfully, they aren't going to be annoying things like 'demo 10 cars' from the looks of it. The examples given involve scoring a certain number of goals, saves, and assists in casual matches, using quick chat to communicate with your team, and using a certain car. Nothing that's going to have people playing differently.

There are a few more details on the pass and challenges in this blog post.

A day before the new Rocket Pass launches, we're also getting another way to spend money on our pretend cars. The Esports Shop will open at on April 16 at 10 am Pacific, and will be stocked with decals, banners, and wheels themed after Rocket League Championship Series teams Cloud9, Dignitas, Evil Geniuses, G2 Esports, Ghost Gaming, mousesports, NRG Esports, Rogue, Splyce, TSM, Team Vitalit.

Each item will be available for a limited time—24 or 48 hours—and won't be purchasable with keys. A new currency, Esports Tokens, will be introduced. The cheapest items will be $1, and neither the items nor the Tokens will be tradeable.

You can find more on the Esports Shop here. And I think that just about covers the extent to which we'll be able to make our dumb cars look dumber this month.

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.