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Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick traversal can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped launches on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this ability provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique has unofficially existed of the game for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by pro gamers in competitive play or tournaments. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to execute these advanced speed-boosts.

"This technique existed in Apex for a while, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers might not realize it's possible without external guides," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so players can easily see when and how to trigger the high-octane movement ability, opening up the mechanic and adding new ways to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains developers aims for players to feel powerful — even those who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, looked at what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we provide these capabilities to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Since currently, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we create a polished implementation?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is largely the central theme in Season 27, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will boost users into the air much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and capability to grant movement bonuses to those nearby. But the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend who's getting the most attention now, with various adjustments implemented to enhance her as stronger, quicker, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that her moment has arrived," states character developer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier previously, but with the introduction of other characters, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer says Respawn evaluated all her skills and implemented some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing velocity while airborne, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, allowing her to spend more time aloft. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark enemies who are hit from it. Her Skyward Dive ability — which launches her entire squad skyward for repositioning or escape — requires reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on the pilot experience," Holstead comments.

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers state 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 fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says lead Legend designer the lead.

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