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The game developers have an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of this game's highly fluid movement can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a surge of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting 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, Respawn simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts have been in Apex for a while, but executing it isn't easy to perform and a player would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese explains. "Now including a visual cue so users can easily see the timing to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the feature and introducing fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a previously obscure technique available to everyone? Principal designer the development lead explains developers aims for players to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we examined at our competition, looked at what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we extend these capabilities to a broader audience?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because currently, some of these techniques are kind of janky to access — it requires to change controls and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'How about we create a polished implementation?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost players into the air faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and the ability to grant speed boosts to those nearby. But it's the high-flying this Legend receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her more potent, faster, and deadlier.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time is here," states character developer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer notes the team evaluated all her skills and implemented significant modifications. Her jetpack have been upgraded, boosting her speed during flight, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, allowing her to remain longer aloft. She can no longer take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark opponents who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches her entire squad into the air for repositioning or retreat — requires much less time to activate. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that players can select to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or further speed up her ultimate activation.

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

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly overhaul, with an extensive redesign that expands choke points and renders claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn says Apex Legends this update is all about providing gamers the resources required to keep up with matches.

"Really, we examined Apex's core identity as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.