🔗 Share this article The Battle Royale's Specialized Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible This Season The game developers has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick movement can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4. Introducing Mantle Boosting Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature gives players a surge of forward momentum when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique 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 competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these tricky movement boosts. "This technique existed in Apex for some time, but the movement requires skill to perform and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so players can easily see when and how 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 technique available to all players? Lead Legend designer the development lead says developers wants gamers to feel powerful — including ones who are inexperienced. "[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, observed what our players are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Since currently, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — you need to change controls and execute within one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we make a polished implementation?'" The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility Mobility is primarily the name of the game in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, Rampart, and Valkyrie all getting buffs to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel users into the air much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls feature a roof and capability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But the spotlight is on aerial Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier. "In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," states character developer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was dominant previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and essentially bring her back to her glory days." Enhancements to the Aerial Legend To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead notes Respawn assessed all her skills and implemented some powerful modifications. Her jetpack have been upgraded, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves regenerates much quicker, enabling the player to spend more time aloft. She can no longer take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag opponents who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches her entire squad into the air for repositioning or escape — now takes much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added perk choices that players can select to conserve resources, expand the spread of her rockets, or accelerate her ultimate activation. "Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead comments. Map Changes Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers says the game Season 27 focuses on giving players the tools required to keep up with the competition. "Really, 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 launches Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.