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The game developers have an exciting surprise in store for Apex Legends gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid traversal can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for the average player, and typically employed by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, the team simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"This technique have been in Apex for a while, but executing it requires skill to pull off and gamers would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "Now including a visual cue so users can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane movement ability, opening up the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

Why make a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan says developers aims for players to experience empowerment — even those who are new.

"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, looked at what our players are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we provide these capabilities to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Since currently, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to access — you need to change controls and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we make a more official version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is largely the central theme in Season 27, with Legends the gravity mage, Rampart, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel users upward much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and capability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. But the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend who's getting significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"I think there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states Legend designer Ian Holstead. "Certainly that she's been top-tier previously, but due to the addition of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's Apex. It was a really great opportunity for the team to revisit multiple elements in her abilities and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, Holstead says Respawn assessed each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, allowing the player to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which lifts her entire squad into the air for redeployment or retreat — now takes reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation.

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

Map Changes

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly overhaul, with an extensive redesign that opens up choke points and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers state Apex Legends this update focuses on giving players the resources they need to compete in the competition.

"Really, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale the Amped season launches Nov. 4 at the specified times.