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Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale'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.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Named "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a surge of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. According to key developer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting was previously been a feature of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's challenging for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, the team is making it easier for everyone to execute these advanced movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in Apex for a while, but executing it requires skill to perform and a player might not realize it's possible without external guides," Canavese states. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so players can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, opening up the mechanic and adding fresh strategies to play for more players."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a once niche technique accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains the team aims for players to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques 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 extend some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Because currently, certain techniques are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to change controls and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we make a more official version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the name of the game in Season 27, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and this skill will boost users into the air faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. But it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting the most attention now, with various adjustments implemented to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant in the past, but due to the addition of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in current Apex. It was an ideal chance for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer notes Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced some powerful modifications. Her jetpack have been upgraded, increasing velocity during flight, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, allowing the player to spend more time in the air. She can no longer be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts teammates skyward for redeployment or escape — requires much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added perk choices that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on the pilot experience," he comments.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, receives a mobility-focused overhaul, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and renders claiming the high ground more manageable. The developers says Apex Legends Season 27 is all about giving players the resources required to compete in the competition.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," says principal designer the lead.

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