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Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise prepared for Apex Legends gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Fans of this game's highly fluid movement will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. According to key developer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." However it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. This season, the team is making it easier for players of all skill levels to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"This technique have been in the game for some time, but the movement requires skill to perform and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the feature and introducing new ways to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains developers aims for players to feel powerful — including ones who are new.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, looked at what our players execute, and we said, 'What if we provide some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Because currently, certain techniques are kind of janky to access — it requires to change controls and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'How about we create a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the name of the game in this season, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and Valkyrie all getting buffs to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will boost users into the air much quicker than before. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But the spotlight is on aerial this Legend receiving the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her more potent, quicker, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that her moment is here," states character developer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt she was top-tier in the past, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, Holstead says Respawn evaluated all her skills and implemented some powerful changes. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing velocity during flight, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, allowing her to remain longer in the air. Now she won't be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who are hit from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts her entire squad skyward for repositioning or escape — requires much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that users can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her ultimate activation.

"Her jet pack fulfills the pilot experience," Holstead says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up choke points and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. The developers state Apex Legends Season 27 is all about providing gamers the tools required to keep up with the competition.

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

Apex Legends Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.