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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat in store for Apex Legends gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid movement will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Named "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this ability provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when scaling ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of the game for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to execute these tricky speed-boosts.

"This technique have been in the game for some time, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and a player would never know it's possible without external guides," Canavese states. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane movement ability, opening up the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for more players."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains the team wants gamers to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, observed what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to more players?'" Mohan clarifies. "Since currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — it requires to change controls and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we make a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is largely the name of the game in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel players into the air much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. However it's the high-flying Valkyrie who's getting the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," says Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was dominant previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's the game. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of restore her to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer says the team assessed all her skills and implemented some powerful modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, enabling the player to spend more time aloft. She can no longer take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which lifts her entire squad into the air for repositioning or retreat — now takes reduced delay to fire up. She's also getting some new Legend Upgrades that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

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

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the lone airborne map, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers says Apex Legends Season 27 is all about giving players the resources required to compete in matches.

"Essentially, we were looking at the game's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

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