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

The game developers has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for the holidays. Enthusiasts of this game's super-slick movement will be pleased to discover that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Introducing Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature gives players a burst of propulsion when climbing over obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. In this update, the team simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for a while, but the movement isn't easy to perform and gamers would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so players can clearly identify the timing to trigger the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the feature and introducing fresh strategies to play for more players."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a previously obscure technique available to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan says the team wants gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we looked around at other games, observed what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Because right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — you need to change controls and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'How about we create a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is primarily the name of the game in this season, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will boost players into the air much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and capability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's aerial Valkyrie who's getting the most attention now, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as more potent, faster, and deadlier.

"I think there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was top-tier in the past, but due to the addition of other characters, 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 the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially restore her to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer notes Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced significant changes. Her jetpack received improvements, boosting velocity during flight, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, enabling the player to remain longer aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts teammates skyward for repositioning or retreat — now takes reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on the pilot experience," he comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. Respawn state Apex Legends this update focuses on giving players the tools required to compete in matches.

"Essentially, we were looking at Apex's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.