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The game developers have an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick movement can rejoice to learn that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature gives players a surge of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. According to key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for casual gamers, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, the team is making it easier for everyone to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for a while, but the movement isn't easy to perform and a player would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can clearly identify the timing to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the mechanic and adding new ways to compete for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a previously obscure movement quirk accessible to all players? Principal designer the development lead explains the team wants gamers to feel powerful — even those who are new.

"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we examined at other games, observed what our players are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we provide some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Because right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — you need to change controls and execute within one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we make a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Movement is largely the central theme in this season, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability is shorter, and this skill will boost players into the air faster than it used to. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and the ability to grant speed boosts to those nearby. However it's aerial Valkyrie who's getting the most attention this season, with various adjustments applied to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," says character developer the designer. "There's no doubt she was dominant previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's the game. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, the developer says the team assessed all her skills and implemented significant modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, allowing her to remain longer in the air. She can no longer take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which lifts her entire squad skyward for repositioning or escape — requires reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that users can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

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

Map Changes

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers state the game Season 27 focuses on giving players the tools they need to keep up with the competition.

"Really, we examined the game's core identity as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.