The Battle Royale's Niche Traversal Techniques Become Widely Accessible This Season

Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid movement can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped launches on Nov. 4.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature gives players a burst of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for casual gamers, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or tournaments. In this update, the team simplifies the process 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 gamers might not realize it [is in the game] without external guides," the designer states. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane movement ability, opening up the feature and introducing new ways to play for more players."

Why 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 aims for gamers to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, looked at what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to more players?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — you need to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we create a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will boost players upward much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and capability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. However the spotlight is on aerial this Legend receiving significant improvements now, with various adjustments implemented to make her stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says character developer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier in the past, but due to the addition of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented an ideal chance for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially restore her to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead says the team assessed each of her abilities and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, boosting her speed during flight, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, allowing her to spend more time aloft. She can no longer be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag opponents who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches her entire squad into the air for redeployment or escape — now takes reduced delay to fire up. She's also getting recently added Legend Upgrades that players can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation.

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

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with major changes that opens up choke points and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn says Apex Legends this update is all about giving players the tools they need to compete in the competition.

"Essentially, we examined Apex's core identity as a movement shooter," explains principal designer Josh Mohan.

Apex Legends Season 27: Amped releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.