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Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid traversal can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability provides gamers a burst of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." However it's no easy feat for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. This season, Respawn is making it easier for everyone to successfully perform these advanced movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for some time, but executing it requires skill to pull off and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," Canavese explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so users can clearly identify the timing to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the feature and introducing fresh strategies to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

Why make a previously obscure technique accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer the development lead says developers wants players to experience empowerment — even those who are new.

"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, observed what our players are doing, and we wondered, 'What if we provide some of this power to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Since currently, certain techniques are kind of janky to use — you need to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. So we said, 'How about we make a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is primarily the central theme in this season, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost players upward much quicker than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature a roof and capability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's aerial Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks applied to make her stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time is here," states Legend designer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was dominant in the past, but due to the addition of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it felt like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer says Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced significant changes. Her jetpack received improvements, boosting her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, enabling the player to remain longer aloft. She can no longer be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark opponents who are hit from it. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts teammates into the air for redeployment or escape — now takes reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her ultimate activation.

"Her jet pack fulfills the pilot experience," he comments.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, this location, receives a movement-friendly overhaul, with an extensive redesign that expands choke points and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers says Apex Legends this update focuses on providing gamers the resources required to keep up with matches.

"Essentially, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.