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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat prepared for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for the holidays. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for some time, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." But it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. This season, Respawn is making it easier for everyone to successfully perform these advanced movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts have been in Apex for some time, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "We're adding a visual cue so players can clearly identify when and how to activate the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding new ways to compete for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a previously obscure technique accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains the team aims for players to feel powerful — even those who are new.

"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, observed what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we extend these capabilities to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Since right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — you need to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we create a polished version?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the name of the game in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, Rampart, and Valkyrie receiving buffs to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost users upward much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and the ability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. However the spotlight is on aerial Valkyrie who's getting the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks applied to enhance her as more potent, faster, and deadlier.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says character developer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt she was top-tier previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and sort of restore her to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead notes Respawn assessed each of her abilities and implemented significant modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing velocity while airborne, and this equipment regenerates much quicker, enabling the player to spend more time in the air. Now she won't be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches teammates into the air for repositioning or escape — requires reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills the pilot experience," he comments.

Map Changes

Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers says Apex Legends this update is all about providing gamers the resources they need to keep up with matches.

"Essentially, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a movement shooter," explains principal designer the lead.

Apex Legends Season 27: Amped launches Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.