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The game developers has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement will be pleased to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on Nov. 4.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this ability gives players a burst of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. As explained lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, the team is making it easier for players of all skill levels to execute these advanced movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for a while, but the movement requires skill to pull off and a player would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," the designer explains. "We're adding a visual cue so players can easily see when and how to trigger the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding new ways to compete for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a once niche technique accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says developers aims for players to feel powerful — even those who are new.

"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at other games, looked at what the community are doing, and we said, 'How can we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because right now, certain techniques are kind of janky to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we make a more official implementation?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie receiving buffs to help keep them in motion. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel users into the air much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and capability to provide speed boosts to those nearby. But the spotlight is on the high-flying Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks applied to make her more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion many agree that her moment has arrived," states Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been 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. This presented a really great opportunity for us to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and essentially bring her back to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore her competitive status in current strategies, Holstead notes Respawn assessed each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed during flight, and the jets themselves regenerates three times faster, enabling her to spend more time aloft. She can no longer be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches her entire squad into the air for repositioning or retreat — now takes much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added Legend Upgrades that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with an extensive redesign that opens up choke points and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn says the game this update is all about giving players the resources they need to compete in the competition.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer the lead.

The battle royale the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.