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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat prepared for Apex Legends players, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's super-slick movement can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season launches on Nov. 4.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature gives players a surge of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique was previously been a feature of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. In this update, the team is making it easier for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for a while, but executing it requires skill to pull off and gamers might not realize it's possible without external guides," Canavese explains. "Now including a visual cue so players can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced movement ability, 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 everyone? Principal designer the development lead explains the team aims for players to feel powerful — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, looked at what the community execute, and we wondered, 'What if we extend these capabilities to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Since right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we create a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Movement is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost players into the air faster than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and the ability to grant movement bonuses to those nearby. However it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as stronger, faster, and more lethal.

"I think many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier previously, but with the introduction of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she's not very relevant in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead says Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced some powerful modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, enabling her to remain longer aloft. Now she won't be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which launches her entire squad skyward for redeployment or escape — requires reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that users can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," he comments.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that opens up bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn state the game Season 27 is all about giving players the resources required to keep up with the competition.

"Essentially, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

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