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The game developers has a special treat in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped launches on Nov. 4.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this feature gives players a burst of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. As explained key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially been a feature of the game for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by pro gamers in competitive play or tournaments. This season, Respawn is making it easier for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts have been in the game for some time, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the feature and introducing new ways to play for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a previously obscure movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer the development lead says the team wants players to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] is doing advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, observed what the community execute, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Since currently, certain techniques are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to change controls and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we make a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Movement is largely the central theme in this season, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability is shorter, and this skill will propel players upward much quicker than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and capability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. But it's the high-flying this Legend receiving the most attention now, with multiple tweaks applied to make her stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"I think there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant in the past, but with the introduction of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current Apex. It was an ideal chance for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead says Respawn assessed each of her abilities and implemented significant changes. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, boosting her speed while airborne, and this equipment regenerates much quicker, enabling her to remain longer in the air. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag opponents who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts her entire squad into the air for repositioning or escape — now takes much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added Legend Upgrades that players can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," he says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that opens up choke points and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers state the game this update focuses on giving players the tools they need to compete in the competition.

"Really, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

Apex Legends the Amped season launches Nov. 4 at the specified times.