The Battle Royale's Specialized Movement Mechanics Are Going Mainstream This Season

Respawn Entertainment have a special treat in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for the holidays. Enthusiasts of this game's super-slick traversal can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Named "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a burst of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique has unofficially existed of the game for quite a while, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or tournaments. In this update, the team simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"This technique existed in Apex for a while, but executing it requires skill to pull off and gamers would never know it's possible without external guides," Canavese explains. "We're adding a visual cue so users can clearly identify the timing to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the feature and introducing fresh strategies to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says the team wants players to experience empowerment — including ones who are new.

"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we examined at other games, looked at what the community are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we provide some of this power to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Because currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'What if we create a polished implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is largely the central theme in this season, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel users into the air faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover 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 the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks applied to enhance her as more potent, faster, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "Certainly that she's been dominant in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current the game. It was a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of restore her to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead notes the team evaluated all her skills and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed while airborne, and this equipment now recharge three times faster, enabling her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark opponents who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches teammates skyward for repositioning or escape — now takes much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added perk choices that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.

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

Map Changes

Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, receives a movement-friendly overhaul, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn says the game this update focuses on providing gamers the resources required to compete in matches.

"Essentially, we were looking at the game's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains principal designer the lead.

Apex Legends Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at the specified times.