The Battle Royale's Niche Traversal Techniques Become Widely Accessible This Season

The game developers have an exciting surprise in store for Apex Legends players, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to learn that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a surge of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. According to key developer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of the game for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and is mainly used by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, Respawn is making it easier for players of all skill levels to execute these tricky speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for some time, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and a player would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "We're adding a visual cue so players can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, opening up the mechanic and introducing fresh strategies to play for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a previously obscure movement quirk accessible to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains developers wants gamers to feel powerful — even those who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we examined at our competition, looked at what the community execute, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Since currently, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'How about we make a polished version?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability is shorter, and this skill will propel players upward much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and capability to provide speed boosts to those nearby. But the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend who's getting the most attention now, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as more potent, faster, and deadlier.

"I think there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was dominant in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she's not very relevant in current Apex. It was an ideal chance for the team to reexamine multiple elements [of her kit] and essentially bring her back to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer notes the team evaluated all her skills and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed during flight, and the jets themselves regenerates much quicker, enabling the player to remain longer aloft. Now she won't be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark opponents who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive ability — which launches her entire squad into the air for repositioning or escape — requires reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that players can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead says.

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers says the game this update focuses on providing gamers the tools they need to keep up with the competition.

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

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