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The game developers has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of this game's highly fluid traversal can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. According to key developer the design lead, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and is mainly used by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, Respawn is making it easier for players of all skill levels to execute these advanced movement boosts.

"This technique existed in the game for a while, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the mechanic and adding new ways to play for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique accessible to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan says developers wants gamers to feel powerful — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we examined at other games, looked at what our players are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Because right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — you need to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. So we said, 'How about we make a polished implementation?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is primarily the central theme in this season, with Legends Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving buffs to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and this skill will boost players into the air faster than it used to. Her defensive walls now include a roof and capability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. However it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting significant improvements now, with various adjustments applied to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "Certainly that she's been dominant previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it felt like she fell behind in today's Apex. It was a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer says the team assessed all her skills and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing velocity during flight, and the jets themselves regenerates three times faster, allowing the player to remain longer in the air. Now she won't be harmed from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark opponents who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which launches her entire squad into the air for repositioning or escape — now takes reduced delay to activate. She's also getting recently added perk choices that players can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation.

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

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the lone airborne map, this location, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn state the game this update is all about providing gamers the tools they need to keep up with matches.

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

Apex Legends Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.