What are Alpha Rewards in Rocket League? The story behind the most expensive items ever

Rocket League came to change everything we know. Not one like it before, we doubt there will be one like it again. Such a catalyst for the sports gaming scene is bound to have its mysteries, and darn it they’re good.

If you stick around long enough the Rocket League community, you will hear the terms “Alpha this” or “Alpha that” if you haven’t already and when it happened, you might’ve just Jay-Z brushed it off and kept moving.

Well, here’s your chance to redeem yourself and learn something for a change. Today, we are going to tell you everything we know about Alpha (and Beta) rewards in Rocket League and why they are a white-hot commodity in this community.

From their inception to their current state, we’ll walk you down the history of Rocket League and how you’ve seen it once or twice if you’ve ever caught an RLCS X series, game or even clip.

What are Alpha Rewards in Rocket League?

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? Rocket League has only one predecessor -- it’s flaky, boring cousin: Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars and referencing content creator GOAT, SunlessKhan, we wonder why they didn’t stick with the name.

Alpha (and Beta) Rewards were, you guessed it, items earned by players that tested the Alpha and/or Beta versions of Rocket League, respectively.

Now, this may be obvious enough to some. We’ve seen it a million times over, especially in games that don’t ever reach lift-off or die soon after release. Unlucky for the rest of titles and lucky for alpha/beta testers, Rocket League took off.

(Image: Psyonix)

Rocket League started to pick up on popularity and has been steadily growing its RLCS viewership and concurrent player base through the years after its 2015 release.

In fact, several professional Rocket League pros have been around since the Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars or SARPBC for short -- RLCS Season 1 World Champion, Cameron "Kronovi" Bills AKA The Mountain is living proof.

While alpha and beta testing had no division between casuals and pros since there was no pro scene, to begin with, Alpha and Beta rewards picked up in popularity and price for one reason and one reason only: exclusivity.

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The total number of nuggets, wheels, hats or boosts is still unknown -- with people taking guesses in the thousands and others in the hundreds, still to be confirmed by Psyonix themselves.

As to their value, welp, hold on to your seats because this one will be a little downer for collectors or to you if these items caught your eye and thought you finally saw the item you needed to finish and pimp your ride.

Alpha and Beta Rewards history

Let’s get something straight out of the gate. The Alpha and Beta phases of Rocket League have their own distinct timelines and rewards.

While the Alpha phase of Rocket League ran from 23rd February to 10th August 2014, Beta testing wasn’t done until sometime October 2014 to 7th July 2015, release date.

Both phases tested arenas, battle-cars, physics and even game titles as the sequel to Supersonic Acrobatic Rock-- cough, cough, SARPBC was originally called Battle-Cars 2, later changed to Rocket League.

(Image: Psyonix)

The Beta testers got the short side of the stick only having one reward to their name, known as the Gold Nugget antenna. 

The Alpha testers received a literal goldmine of items in three different rewards: the Alpha Hat (or Gold Cap), the Alpha boost (or Gold Rush) and the Alpha wheels (or Goldstone).

How much are they now? How expensive can in-game items get? Will I ever stop deviating and actually tell you? I’ll answer two out of those three questions for you.

Alpha and Beta Rewards costs

We’ll go from lower to higher in cost because I like tension and because you’ll think the first one I list will be pricey enough. Ha, you thought.

The Beta Reward, the Gold Nugget antenna (which is honestly the worst reward from the four, honestly, short side of the stick) is currently priced at 16,000 to 22,000 credits depending on your platform. 

Not too shabby considering the change from Beta to Alpha in quality and importance is pretty significant. And just for reference, 16,000 to 22,000 credits can set you back $123 to $169 (nice). 

That’s real-life money we are talking about. Oh, and it gets worse.

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The cheapest Alpha Reward, the Alpha Hat (again, pretty fugly too, in my opinion) is currently priced at 120,000 to 150,000 credits. What a massive jump, oof. That is around $923 to $1,153 -- you know, like rent money.

The following Alpha Reward in price, the Goldstone wheelset will cost you 350,000 to 450,000 credits or if you got $2,692 to $3,461. Shoot your shot. 

And last but not least, the poster boy Alpha Reward -- Alpha boost. To get your hands on the Gold Rush sparkles for your try-hard Fennec preset you will need to invest a whopping 800,000 or 900,000 credits or $6,153 to $6,923. I don’t even have a joke for that, that’s how ridiculous that number is.

I am not one to tell you how to live your life. As far as I know, I’m just the messenger, don’t shoot. But for the love of God, please spend your money wisely. Or don’t. A nice car goes a long way.