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The game developers has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid movement can rejoice to learn that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a burst of forward momentum when climbing over ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of the game for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts have been in Apex for some time, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so users can clearly identify the timing to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the feature and adding new ways to compete for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique available to all players? Principal designer the development lead explains the team wants gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at other games, looked at what our players execute, and we wondered, 'What if we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. So we said, 'What if we create a polished implementation?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is largely the central theme in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost players upward much quicker than before. Her defensive walls feature a roof and capability to provide movement bonuses to those nearby. However the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend who's getting significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and deadlier.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier in the past, but with the introduction of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she fell behind in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for the team to reexamine multiple elements [of her kit] and essentially restore her to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer notes the team assessed all her skills and implemented some powerful modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment now recharge three times faster, allowing the player to spend more time in the air. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which launches teammates into the air for redeployment or retreat — requires reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

"Her jet pack fulfills the pilot experience," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers state the game this update is all about providing gamers the tools required to compete in matches.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer the lead.

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