🔗 Share this article

The game developers have a special treat in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's super-slick movement can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a surge of forward momentum when scaling ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of the game for quite a while, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"This technique have been in Apex for some time, but executing it requires skill to perform and a player would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so users can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the mechanic and introducing new ways to compete for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a previously obscure movement quirk available to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains developers aims for players to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at other games, looked at what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we extend these capabilities to a broader audience?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because right now, certain techniques are kind of janky to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we make a polished implementation?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is largely the name of the game in this season, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving buffs to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will boost players upward much quicker than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and capability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. But it's the high-flying this Legend receiving significant improvements this season, with various adjustments applied to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and deadlier.

"I think there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says character developer the designer. "Certainly she was top-tier in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she fell behind 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 former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore her competitive status in the game's meta, the developer says Respawn evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful changes. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed while airborne, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, enabling her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive skill — which launches her entire squad into the air for redeployment or escape — now takes reduced delay to activate. She's also getting recently added Legend Upgrades that players can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead comments.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers state the game this update focuses on providing gamers the resources required to compete in the competition.

"Really, we examined the game's core identity as a movement shooter," explains principal designer the lead.

Apex Legends the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.