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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat prepared for Apex Legends gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid movement can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a surge of propulsion when climbing over obstacles. According to key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for some time, but executing it requires skill to perform and a player might not realize it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer states. "Now including a visual cue so users can clearly identify when and how to activate the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the feature and introducing new ways to compete for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Lead Legend designer the development lead says developers aims for players to feel powerful — even those who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we provide these capabilities to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Since currently, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to use — you need 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 largely the name of the game in this season, with Legends Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them mobile. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will boost users upward faster than it used to. Her defensive walls feature a roof and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. However it's aerial this Legend who's getting significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her more potent, faster, and more lethal.

"I think many agree that her moment is here," states Legend designer the designer. "Certainly she was top-tier in the past, but due to the addition of new Legends, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer notes Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment regenerates much quicker, allowing the player to spend more time in the air. She can no longer be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark opponents who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches teammates into the air for repositioning or escape — now takes reduced delay to fire up. She's also getting some new perk choices that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

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

Map Changes

Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers state the game this update focuses on providing gamers the resources required to keep up with the competition.

"Really, we examined Apex's core identity as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale the Amped season launches November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.