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The game developers has a special treat in store for Apex Legends players, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid traversal will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on Nov. 4.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when scaling ledges and walls. According to key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for casual gamers, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, the team is making it easier for everyone to execute these advanced movement boosts.

"This technique existed in the game for a while, but the movement requires skill to pull off and a player would never know it's possible without external guides," Canavese states. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so players can clearly identify when and how to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the mechanic and adding new ways to compete for more players."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains developers wants players to feel powerful — even those who are new.

"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we provide some of this power to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Since currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we make a more official version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with Legends Horizon, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie receiving buffs to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will boost users upward much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's the high-flying Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as stronger, faster, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," says character developer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in today's the game. It was an ideal chance for us to reexamine multiple elements [of her kit] and essentially restore her to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore her competitive status in current strategies, Holstead says the team evaluated all her skills and implemented some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed during flight, and the jets themselves regenerates much quicker, allowing the player to spend more time aloft. Now she won't be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts her entire squad skyward for repositioning or escape — requires much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added Legend Upgrades that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation.

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

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and renders claiming the high ground more manageable. The developers state Apex Legends this update focuses on providing gamers the resources they need to compete in matches.

"Essentially, we were looking at the game's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

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