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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in Apex for a while, but executing it requires skill to perform and gamers might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "We're adding a visual cue so users can clearly identify the timing to activate the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the mechanic and adding fresh strategies to play for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a once niche technique accessible to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan says the team aims for gamers to feel powerful — including ones who are new.

"[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we looked around at other games, observed what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we extend these capabilities to more players?'" the designer explains. "Because currently, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to use — you need to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we create a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is primarily the name of the game 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 is shorter, and this skill will propel users into the air much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include a roof and capability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. However the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend who's getting significant improvements this season, with various adjustments implemented to enhance her as stronger, quicker, and deadlier.

"I think many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," states Legend designer the designer. "Certainly that she's been dominant previously, but with the introduction of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she's not very relevant in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of restore her to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, the developer says the team evaluated all her skills and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, enabling the player to spend more time in the air. Now she won't be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag enemies who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches teammates skyward for redeployment or retreat — requires much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," Holstead says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, this location, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers state Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on providing gamers the resources they need to keep up with matches.

"Really, we examined Apex's core identity as a movement shooter," says principal designer the lead.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.