🔗 Share this article Apex Legends' Niche Movement Mechanics Are Going Mainstream This Season The game developers have an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for the holidays. Fans of the battle royale's super-slick traversal will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th. Introducing The Mantle Boost Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this ability provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique has unofficially been a feature of the game for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts. "Mantle Boosts have been in Apex for a while, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers might not realize it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "Now including a visual cue so players can easily see when and how to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, opening up the mechanic and adding new ways to compete for a much wider base." Why Make It Accessible Why make a previously obscure movement quirk accessible to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains the team aims for gamers to feel powerful — including ones who are inexperienced. "Our community is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, looked at what the community execute, and we said, 'What if we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer clarifies. "Because right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — it requires to change controls and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we create a polished version?'" The Amped Update Movement Focus Movement is primarily the name of the game in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving buffs to maintain them in motion. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost users into the air much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature a roof and capability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. However it's the high-flying this Legend receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her more potent, faster, and more lethal. "I think there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was dominant in the past, but due to the addition of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. It was a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially restore her to former prominence." Enhancements to the Aerial Legend To restore Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer notes Respawn evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, enabling her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark opponents who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts teammates skyward for redeployment or escape — requires reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time. "Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead says. Olympus Improvements Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers says Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on giving players the tools required to keep up with the competition. "Really, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a movement shooter," says lead Legend designer the lead. Apex Legends Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at the specified times.