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Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for festive season. Fans of this game's super-slick traversal will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season launches on Nov. 4.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. According to key developer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn is making it easier for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"This technique have been in the game for some time, but the movement isn't easy to pull off and a player would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so players can easily see when and how to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the feature and adding new ways to compete for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a once niche movement quirk available to everyone? Principal designer the development lead explains the team aims for gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are new.

"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we looked around at other games, observed what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we provide these capabilities to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Since right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — you need to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'How about we make a more official version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the central theme in this season, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost users into the air much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls now include a roof and the ability to provide movement bonuses to those nearby. However it's the high-flying Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements this season, with various adjustments implemented to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"I think many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in current the game. It was a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and essentially restore her to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, Holstead says Respawn assessed each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, boosting her speed during flight, and this equipment now recharge three times faster, allowing the player to remain longer in the air. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to tag opponents who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which launches teammates into the air for redeployment or retreat — now takes much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that players can select to conserve resources, expand the spread of her rockets, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills the pilot experience," he says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, this location, receives a movement-friendly overhaul, with major changes that opens up choke points and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers state Apex Legends this update is all about providing gamers the tools they need to keep up with the competition.

"Essentially, we were looking at the game's core identity as a movement shooter," says lead Legend designer the lead.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.