🔗 Share this article

The game developers has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid movement will be pleased to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a burst of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of the game for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or tournaments. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts have been in Apex for some time, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," Canavese explains. "Now including a visual cue so players can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the mechanic and introducing fresh strategies to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a once niche technique accessible to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains the team aims for players to experience empowerment — including ones 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 wondered, 'What if we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer clarifies. "Because right now, certain techniques are kind of janky to use — you need to change controls and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'How about we make a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is primarily the central theme in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting buffs to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will propel users upward faster than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to those nearby. However the spotlight is on aerial Valkyrie receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks applied to make her stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"I think there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," states Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt she was top-tier previously, but with the introduction of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer notes the team evaluated each of her abilities and implemented some powerful changes. Her jetpack received improvements, boosting velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves regenerates three times faster, allowing her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag opponents who are hit from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches teammates into the air for redeployment or escape — requires much less time to activate. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on the pilot experience," he says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly overhaul, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn says Apex Legends Season 27 is all about providing gamers the resources required to compete in the competition.

"Essentially, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains principal designer Josh Mohan.

Apex Legends the Amped season launches Nov. 4 at the specified times.