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Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise in store for Apex Legends players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick movement will be pleased to discover that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when Season 27: Amped goes live on Nov. 4.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Named "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this ability gives players a burst of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. According to key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn is making it easier for everyone to successfully perform these advanced movement boosts.

"This technique have been in the game for some time, but executing it isn't easy to perform and a player would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese states. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so players can easily see the timing to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the feature and adding new ways to play for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a previously obscure movement quirk available to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says the team wants players to feel powerful — even those who are new.

"Our community 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 wondered, 'How can we extend these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan clarifies. "Since right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — you need to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'What if we make a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Movement is largely the central theme in this season, with Legends Horizon, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting buffs to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will propel players upward faster than before. Her defensive walls feature a roof and the ability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. But the spotlight is on the high-flying Valkyrie receiving significant improvements this season, with various adjustments implemented to enhance her as more potent, faster, and more lethal.

"In my opinion many agree that her moment has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it felt like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead notes Respawn assessed each of her abilities and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, enabling her to spend more time in the air. She can no longer take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which lifts her entire squad skyward for redeployment or escape — requires much less time to activate. She's also getting recently added Legend Upgrades that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack fulfills the pilot experience," 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 securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers state Apex Legends this update is all about giving players the resources required to compete in matches.

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

The battle royale the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.