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The game developers have an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Fans of this game's highly fluid traversal will be pleased to learn that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season 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. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by pro gamers in competitive play or tournaments. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in Apex for a while, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers might not realize 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, opening up the feature and introducing fresh strategies to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a once niche technique available to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan says developers wants players to experience empowerment — even those who are new.

"[The playerbase] performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to more players?'" the designer explains. "Because currently, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — you need to change controls and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we create a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is largely the central theme in this season, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will propel players upward much quicker than before. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and capability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's aerial Valkyrie receiving the most attention now, with various adjustments implemented to make her more potent, quicker, and deadlier.

"I think there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time is here," says character developer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier previously, but due to the addition of other characters, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she fell behind in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore her competitive status in the game's meta, Holstead says the team assessed each of her abilities and introduced significant modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, boosting velocity during flight, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, allowing her to spend more time in the air. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to tag enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which lifts teammates skyward for repositioning or escape — requires much less time to activate. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate activation.

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

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that expands choke points and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. Respawn state Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on giving players the resources required to compete in matches.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains principal designer the lead.

The battle royale the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.