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Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise prepared for Apex Legends gamers, perfectly timed for the holidays. Fans of this game's highly fluid traversal will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting was previously been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. In this update, the team simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in Apex for some time, but executing it requires skill to pull off and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer states. "We're adding a visual cue so users can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the feature and adding fresh strategies to play for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

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

"[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, looked at what the community execute, and we wondered, 'What if we extend some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Because currently, certain techniques are kind of janky to use — it requires to change controls and execute within one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we make a polished version?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is largely the name of the game in this season, with Legends Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving buffs to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will propel users upward much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's aerial Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks applied to enhance her as stronger, quicker, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says Legend designer the designer. "Certainly that she's been dominant previously, but with the introduction of other characters, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's the game. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead says the team assessed all her skills and introduced some powerful changes. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, enabling her to spend more time in the air. Now she won't be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who are hit from it. Her Skyward Dive ability — which launches her entire squad skyward for repositioning or escape — now takes much less time to activate. Additionally, she gains recently added Legend Upgrades that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Additionally, the lone airborne map, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn state the game this update focuses on providing gamers the tools required to keep up with the competition.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer the lead.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.