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The game developers have an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick traversal can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature gives players a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously been a feature of the game for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.

"This technique existed in Apex for some time, but executing it isn't easy to perform and gamers would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "We're adding a visual cue so users can easily see when and how to trigger the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the mechanic and adding new ways to play for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

Why make a once niche movement quirk available to everyone? Principal designer the development lead explains the team aims for players to feel powerful — even those who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what the community execute, and we said, 'How can we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer clarifies. "Because currently, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to access — you need to change controls and execute within one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we create a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost users into the air faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include a roof and capability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But the spotlight is on aerial Valkyrie who's getting the most attention now, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her more potent, quicker, and deadlier.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant previously, but due to the addition of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. This presented an ideal chance for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, Holstead says the team assessed all her skills and implemented some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and this equipment regenerates much quicker, enabling her to spend more time aloft. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark opponents who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches her entire squad into the air for redeployment or escape — now takes much less time to fire up. She's also getting some new Legend Upgrades that players can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," he comments.

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, is getting a movement-friendly overhaul, with major changes that expands choke points and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn says Apex Legends this update is all about giving players the resources they need to compete in the competition.

"Really, we were looking at the game's core identity as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

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