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Respawn Entertainment have a special treat in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for the holidays. Fans of this game's super-slick movement will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on Nov. 4.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Named "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's challenging for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. In this update, Respawn is making it easier for everyone to successfully perform these tricky movement boosts.

"This technique existed in Apex for a while, but the movement isn't easy to perform and gamers would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer states. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can clearly identify when and how to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the feature and introducing new ways to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a previously obscure technique accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer the development lead says developers wants 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, looked at what the community execute, and we wondered, 'What if we provide these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan explains. "Since right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we create a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the name of the game in Season 27, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability is shorter, and this skill will propel users upward faster than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover feature a roof and capability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's aerial Valkyrie who's getting the most attention now, with multiple tweaks applied to make her stronger, faster, and more lethal.

"I think there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states character developer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was top-tier previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in today's the game. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and essentially restore her to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, Holstead says Respawn evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her jetpack have been upgraded, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment regenerates much quicker, allowing the player to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts her entire squad skyward for redeployment or retreat — now takes reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that players can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," he says.

Map Changes

Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. Respawn state the game this update is all about giving players the tools required to keep up with the competition.

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

The battle royale the Amped season launches November 4th at the specified times.