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The game developers have a special treat in store for Apex Legends gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid traversal can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of propulsion when scaling obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." But it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.

"This technique have been in Apex for some time, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to activate the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding new ways to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains developers aims for players to experience empowerment — even those who are new.

"[The playerbase] performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, observed what the community execute, and we said, 'What if we extend these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan explains. "Since right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — you need to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we make a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is largely the name of the game in this season, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability is shorter, and this skill will boost players upward much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls now include a roof and capability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. But the spotlight is on the high-flying Valkyrie receiving significant improvements now, with various adjustments implemented to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says character developer the designer. "Certainly that she's been top-tier previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's Apex. It was an ideal chance for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, the developer says the team evaluated all her skills and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, boosting velocity while airborne, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, allowing her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches her entire squad into the air for redeployment or escape — now takes much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added perk choices that users can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

"Her jet pack fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," he comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's only floating arena, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that opens up choke points and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn state the game Season 27 focuses on providing gamers the resources they need to compete in the competition.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a movement shooter," explains principal designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.