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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat prepared for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid traversal will be pleased to learn that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when climbing over ledges and walls. According to key developer the design lead, this technique was previously been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"This technique existed in Apex for some time, but the movement requires skill to pull off and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so players can clearly identify when and how to activate the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the mechanic and adding fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a once niche technique available to everyone? Principal designer the development lead explains the team aims for players to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, looked at what our players execute, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to a broader audience?'" the designer clarifies. "Since right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we make a polished implementation?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Mobility is primarily the name of the game in this season, with Legends Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will boost players upward faster than it used to. Her defensive walls now include a roof and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. However it's aerial this Legend who's getting significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"I think many agree that her moment has arrived," says character developer Ian Holstead. "Certainly that she's been top-tier previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore her competitive status in the game's meta, the developer says Respawn assessed all her skills and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, enabling her to spend more time in the air. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark opponents who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches her entire squad into the air for redeployment or retreat — requires reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with major changes that opens up bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers says the game Season 27 is all about providing gamers the resources they need to compete in the competition.

"Essentially, we were looking at Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer the lead.

The battle royale the Amped season launches Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.