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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat prepared for Apex Legends players, arriving just in time for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick traversal will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on Nov. 4.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. As explained key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. This season, Respawn is making it easier for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for a while, but the movement isn't easy to perform and a player would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see the timing to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the mechanic and introducing new ways to compete for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan says developers aims for gamers to feel powerful — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, observed what our players execute, and we said, 'How can we extend these capabilities to a broader audience?'" the designer clarifies. "Since currently, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'How about we create a polished implementation?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the name of the game in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and Valkyrie all getting buffs to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost users into the air faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature a roof and the ability to provide 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 stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time is here," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was dominant previously, 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 the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore her competitive status in current strategies, Holstead says the team evaluated each of her abilities and implemented some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed during flight, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, enabling her to remain longer in the air. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to tag opponents who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts her entire squad skyward for redeployment or retreat — now takes reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," Holstead comments.

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. Respawn state Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on providing gamers the resources required to compete in the competition.

"Essentially, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at the specified times.