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Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Fans of the battle royale's super-slick traversal can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a surge of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of the game for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and is mainly used 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.

"This technique existed in the game for a while, but the movement isn't easy to pull off and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so users can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, opening up the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Lead Legend designer the development lead explains developers wants players to experience empowerment — even those who are new.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, observed what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan clarifies. "Since currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. We proposed, 'What if we make a more official version?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is largely the name of the game in this season, with Legends Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will boost users upward faster than before. Her defensive walls now include a roof and capability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. But the spotlight is on aerial this Legend who's getting significant improvements now, with various adjustments applied to make her more potent, faster, and deadlier.

"I think many agree that her moment has arrived," states character developer the designer. "There's no doubt she was dominant previously, but due to the addition of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in today's the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to revisit multiple elements [of her kit] and essentially bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer notes Respawn evaluated each of her abilities and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, allowing her to spend more time in the air. She can no longer be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark enemies who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches teammates into the air for redeployment or retreat — requires reduced delay to activate. She's also getting recently added perk choices that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," he says.

Map Changes

Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers state Apex Legends this update focuses on providing gamers the tools required to compete in matches.

"Really, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

Apex Legends the Amped season launches November 4th at the specified times.