The Battle Royale's Niche Movement Mechanics Are Going Mainstream This Season

The game developers has an exciting surprise prepared for Apex Legends gamers, arriving just in time for the holidays. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid traversal can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially been a feature of the game for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for the average player, and typically employed by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts have been in Apex for a while, but executing it isn't easy to perform and a player might not realize it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer states. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so users can clearly identify the timing to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, opening up the feature and introducing fresh strategies to play for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says developers aims for gamers to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at other games, looked at what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Since right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — you need to change controls and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we create a polished implementation?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is largely the name of the game in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting buffs to help keep them in motion. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will propel players upward much quicker than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover feature a roof and the ability to grant movement bonuses to those nearby. But it's aerial this Legend receiving significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as more potent, faster, and more lethal.

"I think many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," states character developer Ian Holstead. "Certainly that she's been dominant in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in today's the game. This presented an ideal chance for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of restore her to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, Holstead says the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her jetpack have been upgraded, increasing velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, allowing her to spend more time aloft. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to tag opponents who take damage from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts her entire squad skyward for redeployment or escape — requires reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," he comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. Respawn says the game Season 27 is all about providing gamers the resources they need to keep up with matches.

"Really, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

Apex Legends the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.