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Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's super-slick traversal will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped launches on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this ability gives players a surge of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique was previously existed of the game for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. This season, Respawn is making it easier for players of all skill levels to execute these advanced movement boosts.

"This technique have been in the game for some time, but executing it requires skill to pull off and a player would never know it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer states. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so players can clearly identify when and how to activate the high-octane traversal skill, making accessible the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for more players."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains developers aims for players to feel powerful — even those who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, observed what the community are doing, and we wondered, 'What if we extend some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Since right now, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to use — you need to change controls and hit precise timings. We proposed, 'How about we create a more official implementation?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the name of the game in this season, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting buffs to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel users into the air faster than it used to. Her defensive walls feature a roof and the ability to grant speed boosts to those nearby. But it's aerial this Legend receiving the most attention this season, with various adjustments applied to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," states character developer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt she was top-tier in the past, but due to the addition of new Legends, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, Holstead notes the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, boosting her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, allowing her to spend more time aloft. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which lifts teammates skyward for repositioning or escape — requires reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains recently added Legend Upgrades that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills the pilot experience," he says.

Map Changes

Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly overhaul, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. Respawn state the game Season 27 is all about giving players the tools required to keep up with matches.

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

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