Pulsar League: a beginner's guide to rocket football
Updated 16 October 2026
Pulsar League is football with rocket-powered cars, and every car handles exactly the same, so the only thing that separates two players is how they drive. This guide covers the habits that turn a beginner into a useful teammate, from boost management to your first aerial.
The controls that matter most
W and S accelerate and reverse, A and D steer, Shift boosts, Ctrl powerslides and Space jumps; press it again in the air for a double jump. In the air, W and S pitch the nose and Q and E roll. Jump a second time while holding a direction to dodge: a quick flip that hits the ball hard and is the fastest way to change direction. C switches between ball cam, which keeps the ball in view, and car cam. A controller works too.
Boost is the whole game
You start each kickoff with a third of a tank, and boosting burns it quickly: a full tank lasts under four seconds. There are two kinds of boost pad on the pitch. The small pads scattered across the field give a little boost and come back after four seconds. The six large pads, three down each side of the pitch, fill your tank completely and take ten seconds to return.
- Collect small pads on the way rather than detouring for a big one. Driving over them is free boost.
- Do not boost while you are already at top speed; it wastes the tank. Boost to get up to speed, then let go.
- Taking a large pad also denies it to the other team for ten seconds.
Hitting the ball well
- Approach from behind the ball, facing the goal you are attacking. A hit from the side sends it sideways; a hit from behind sends it forward.
- Dodge into the ball for power. Drive at it, jump, and flip forward just before contact.
- Use the walls. You can drive straight up them, and a ball that rolls up the wall comes back down into the middle.
- Powerslide (Ctrl) to turn on the spot without losing all your speed.
Your first aerials
An aerial is meeting the ball in the air. Jump, tilt the nose back with S so the car points at the ball, and hold boost to fly. Let go of S as you rise so you do not flip over, and steer with small touches. The Aerial drill in Training gives you a lofted ball and a full tank to practise exactly this, and Lunar Flight's low gravity makes every challenge an aerial.
Playing as a team
- Do not all chase the ball. In two-a-side and three-a-side, one player challenges, one supports, and one hangs back. When you have hit the ball, drive back towards your own goal and let a teammate take the next touch.
- Defend from the goal line out. Getting back between the ball and your goal is more important than getting back to the ball.
- Use quick chat. The number keys send preset phrases such as "I got it!", "Defending!" and "Take the shot!", so your team knows what you are doing. There is no free text chat.
Demolitions
Drive into an opponent at close to full boost speed and you demolish their car: they are out of play for three seconds and you earn fifty points. Demolishing a defender just as your team shoots can win a game; chasing demolitions instead of playing the ball usually loses one.
Modes
- Soccar: the classic match. One, three or five minutes, one-on-one, two-a-side or three-a-side, with overtime settled by the next goal.
- Heatseeker: every touch sends the ball, faster each time, towards the opposite goal. Defending is all about the first touch.
- Lunar Flight: about a third of normal gravity. Everything is an aerial.
- Snow Day: a heavy sliding puck instead of a ball. It rewards grounded passes and precise angles.
- Pulsar Rumble: you earn powers during play and fire them with F. Freeze stops the ball dead for a couple of seconds, magnet draws a nearby ball towards you for a few seconds, grapple pulls you to it, shockwave blasts a nearby ball away from you, and swap trades places with the nearest opponent, speed and all.
- Freeplay: an empty arena with unlimited time and boost.
There are four arenas: the open-air Aether Stadium, the rain-slick Neon District, the sunlit Solstice Coliseum and the polar Glacier Dome. They look different but play the same.
Training, the Cup and the Star Pass
Training has three drills: Striker, finishing a moving ball into the orange goal; Aerial, meeting a lofted ball with a full tank; and Keeper, protecting the blue goal from an incoming shot. Press R to reset a drill and go again. The Pulsar Cup is a three-round knockout against bots for a trophy. Matches, challenges and the free twenty-tier Star Pass earn XP and credits for the Garage, where you choose your car's body, colour, decal, wheels, boost trail and goal explosion. Every car has the same handling and hitbox, and nothing is for sale.
Playing online
Play Online finds a public match, waiting up to a minute for real players before filling the empty places with bots. To play with friends, create a party and share its six-character code: a party always plays on the same team. You can also start a private room and play with whoever has joined it.
Ready to play?
Pulsar League runs in your browser, free, with nothing to install. Play Pulsar League now, or browse the categories for something else.
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