The Battle Royale's Niche Traversal Techniques Are Going Mainstream This Season
The game developers has an exciting surprise prepared for Apex Legends gamers, arriving just in time for the holidays. Fans of this game's highly fluid traversal can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4.
Introducing The Mantle Boost
Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.
"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for a while, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and gamers might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," Canavese explains. "Now including a visual cue so players can clearly identify when and how to activate the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for more players."
Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics
Why make a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer the development lead says the team aims for players to feel powerful — including ones who are new.
"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, looked at what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Since currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. We proposed, 'How about we make a more official version?'"
Season 27 Movement Focus
Movement is largely the central theme in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will propel users upward faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include a roof and capability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. However it's aerial this Legend receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as stronger, faster, and deadlier.
"I think many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," says Legend designer the designer. "Certainly that she's been top-tier in the past, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. It was a really great opportunity for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially restore her to former prominence."
Valkyrie's Upgrades
To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, the developer says Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced some powerful changes. Her jetpack received improvements, boosting her speed during flight, and this equipment regenerates much quicker, allowing her to spend more time in the air. She can no longer be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which lifts teammates skyward for repositioning or escape — requires reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that users can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her Skyward Dive takeoff time.
"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills the pilot experience," Holstead comments.
Map Changes
Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that opens up bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers says Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on giving players the resources they need to keep up with matches.
"Essentially, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer the lead.
The battle royale Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.
