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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat in store for Apex Legends gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's super-slick movement will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped launches on Nov. 4.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. As explained lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts have been in the game for some time, but the movement requires skill to pull off and a player might not realize it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "We're adding a visual cue so players can easily see when and how to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the mechanic and adding new ways to compete for more players."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a previously obscure movement quirk available to everyone? Lead Legend designer the development lead explains the team aims for gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what the community are doing, and we said, 'What if we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Since right now, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we create a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is primarily the central theme in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will propel players into the air faster than before. Her defensive walls feature a roof and the ability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. However the spotlight is on the high-flying Valkyrie receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks applied to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," states Legend designer the designer. "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 seemed like she's not very relevant in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and essentially restore her to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer says the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing velocity during flight, and this equipment now recharge three times faster, allowing the player to spend more time aloft. She can no longer be harmed from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to tag enemies who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts teammates skyward for repositioning or retreat — now takes much less time to fire up. She's also getting some new perk choices that users can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, 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, this location, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn says Apex Legends this update focuses on providing gamers the resources required to compete in matches.

"Really, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains principal designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at the specified times.