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Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise prepared for Apex Legends players, perfectly timed for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped launches on Nov. 4.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. This season, Respawn is making it easier for everyone to execute these advanced movement boosts.

"This technique have been in Apex for a while, but executing it requires skill to perform and a player would never know it's possible without external guides," the designer explains. "We're adding a visual cue so users can clearly identify when and how to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the feature and introducing new ways to play for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a previously obscure movement quirk available to all players? Principal designer the development lead says developers aims for gamers to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, looked at what our players execute, and we wondered, 'What if we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Since currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. So we said, 'How about we create a more official implementation?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will boost players into the air much quicker than before. Her defensive walls feature a roof and the ability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as stronger, quicker, and deadlier.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," states Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. It was an ideal chance for the team to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and essentially bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, Holstead says the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful changes. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, enabling her to spend more time in the air. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which launches teammates skyward for redeployment or retreat — now takes much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that players can select to conserve resources, expand the spread of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills the pilot experience," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly overhaul, with major changes that expands choke points and makes claiming the high ground 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 Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," says lead Legend designer the lead.

Apex Legends the Amped season launches November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.