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Respawn Entertainment have a special treat prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid movement will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. As explained lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, the team is making it easier for everyone to successfully perform these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for some time, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and gamers might not realize it's possible without external guides," Canavese explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so players can easily see when and how to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, opening up the feature and introducing new ways to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

Why make a previously obscure movement quirk available to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains developers wants gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are new.

"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, observed what the community are doing, and we wondered, 'What if we provide these capabilities to a broader audience?'" the designer clarifies. "Since right now, certain techniques are kind of janky to use — it requires to change controls and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'What if we create a polished version?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the central theme in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to maintain them mobile. Recovery time on her tactical ability is shorter, and the Gravity Lift 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 the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend who's getting significant improvements now, with various adjustments applied to make her stronger, faster, and more lethal.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," states character developer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current the game. This presented an ideal chance for the team to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities 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 implemented significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, boosting her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves regenerates much quicker, enabling her to spend more time aloft. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which lifts teammates skyward for redeployment or retreat — now takes reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that users can choose to conserve resources, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation.

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

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that opens up bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers says the game Season 27 is all about providing gamers the resources they need to keep up with the competition.

"Really, we examined Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer the lead.

Apex Legends the Amped season releases November 4th at the specified times.