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Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise in store for Apex Legends gamers, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid traversal will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature gives players a surge of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's challenging for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for a while, but executing it requires skill to pull off and a player would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," the designer explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the feature and adding new ways to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk available to everyone? Principal designer the development lead explains developers wants players to feel powerful — including ones who are new.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, observed what the community are doing, and we said, 'What if we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Since right now, certain 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 more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is largely the central theme in this season, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them in motion. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will propel users into the air faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and capability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. However the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"I think there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time is here," says character developer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt she was dominant previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's the game. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer says Respawn evaluated each of her abilities and introduced significant changes. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing velocity during flight, and the jets themselves regenerates much quicker, allowing her to spend more time in the air. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches teammates into the air for redeployment or retreat — now takes reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added Legend Upgrades that players can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with an extensive redesign that expands choke points and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers says Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on providing gamers the tools they need to compete in the competition.

"Really, we were looking at the game's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

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