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The game developers has a special treat prepared for Apex Legends players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Named "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique was previously existed of the game for quite a while, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, the team is making it easier for players of all skill levels to execute these tricky speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in Apex for some time, but executing it requires skill to pull off and a player might not realize it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, making accessible the mechanic and adding new ways to compete for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk accessible to all players? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains developers wants players to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, looked at what the community are doing, and we wondered, 'What if we extend some of this power to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Because right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to access — you need to change controls and execute within one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we create a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is largely the central theme in Season 27, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and Valkyrie all getting buffs to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will propel users upward faster than it used to. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. However it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in current Apex. It was an ideal chance for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore her competitive status in current strategies, the developer says Respawn evaluated all her skills and implemented some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing velocity during flight, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, enabling the player 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 skill — which lifts her entire squad into the air for redeployment or retreat — now takes 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 further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.

"Her jet pack fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and renders claiming the high ground more manageable. The developers says Apex Legends this update focuses on providing gamers the resources they need to compete in the competition.

"Really, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," explains principal designer the lead.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.