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Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid traversal will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this ability gives players a burst of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained key developer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for the average player, 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 execute these tricky movement boosts.

"This technique existed in the game for some time, but executing it isn't easy to perform and gamers might not realize it's possible without external guides," the designer explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to activate the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the feature and adding new ways to play for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a once niche technique available to all players? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains the team aims for players to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at other games, observed what our players are doing, and we said, 'What if we provide these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan explains. "Because right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — you need to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we make a polished version?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the central theme in this season, with Legends Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to help keep them in motion. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will propel players into the air much quicker than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover feature a roof and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. However the spotlight is on the high-flying Valkyrie receiving significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks applied to make her stronger, faster, and more lethal.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," says character developer 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 seemed like she's not very relevant in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and essentially restore her to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, the developer notes Respawn assessed all her skills and introduced some powerful changes. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment now recharge three times faster, allowing her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches her entire squad skyward for redeployment or retreat — requires much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added perk choices that players can choose to conserve resources, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," he comments.

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn says the game Season 27 focuses on giving players the resources they need to compete in matches.

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

The battle royale the Amped season launches November 4th at the specified times.