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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat prepared for Apex Legends players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid movement can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability provides gamers a surge of propulsion when climbing over obstacles. According to key developer Eric Canavese, this technique was previously been a feature of Apex Legends for some time, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and is mainly used by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, Respawn is making it easier for players of all skill levels to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for some time, but the movement requires skill to pull off and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so players can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding new ways to play for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a previously obscure technique available to all players? Lead Legend designer the development lead explains the team wants gamers to feel powerful — even those who are new.

"[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, observed what the community are doing, and we said, 'How can we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Because currently, certain techniques are somewhat awkward to access — you need to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'How about we create a polished version?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with Legends Horizon, Rampart, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will propel players upward faster than before. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and capability to grant movement bonuses to those nearby. But the spotlight is on aerial this Legend receiving significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks applied to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that her moment has arrived," says character developer the designer. "Certainly she was dominant in the past, but due to the addition of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she's not very relevant in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of bring her back to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, the developer notes the team assessed all her skills and introduced some powerful changes. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, enabling the player to remain longer aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches her entire squad skyward for repositioning or escape — now takes much less time to activate. She's also getting some new perk choices that players can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

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

Map Changes

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that opens up choke points and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn says the game this update focuses on giving players the resources required to keep up with the competition.

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

Apex Legends the Amped season releases November 4th at the specified times.