🔗 Share this article

Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement will be pleased to discover that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season launches on Nov. 4.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when scaling ledges and walls. According to key developer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of Apex Legends for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, the team simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in Apex for a while, but executing it requires skill to pull off and a player would never know it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer states. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to trigger the high-octane movement ability, opening up the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Principal designer the development lead explains the team aims for players to experience empowerment — including ones who are new.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, observed what the community execute, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Since right now, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to use — you need to change controls and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we create a more official version?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the name of the game in Season 27, with Legends Horizon, Rampart, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will propel players upward much quicker than before. Her defensive walls now include a roof and the ability to provide speed boosts to those nearby. However it's the high-flying this Legend receiving the most attention now, with multiple tweaks applied to make her more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," states Legend designer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was dominant previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's the game. It was a really great opportunity for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of restore her to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer says the team assessed each of her abilities and introduced significant changes. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, enabling her to remain longer in the air. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark opponents who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts her entire squad into the air for redeployment or escape — requires much less time to activate. Additionally, she gains recently added Legend Upgrades that players can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her ultimate activation.

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

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, this location, is getting a movement-friendly overhaul, with major changes that expands choke points and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn state the game this update is all about providing gamers the tools they need to keep up with matches.

"Really, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

Apex Legends Season 27: Amped launches Nov. 4 at the specified times.