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

Respawn Entertainment have a special treat prepared for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a surge of propulsion when scaling obstacles. According to key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially been a feature of the game for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and is mainly used by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to execute these advanced speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts have been in Apex for a while, but the movement isn't easy to perform and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to trigger the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."

The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique accessible to all players? Lead Legend designer the development lead explains the team aims for gamers to feel powerful — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we examined at other games, looked at what the community are doing, and we said, 'What if we extend these capabilities to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Since right now, certain techniques are somewhat awkward to use — you need to change controls and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we create a polished implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with Legends Horizon, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them in motion. Recovery time on her tactical ability is shorter, and this skill will boost users upward much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and the ability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. But it's aerial Valkyrie who's getting the most attention now, with various adjustments implemented to make her more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"I think many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt she was dominant in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. It was an ideal chance for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, the developer says Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, enabling the player to remain longer in the air. Now she won't be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which lifts her entire squad skyward for redeployment or retreat — now takes reduced delay to fire up. She's also getting recently added perk choices that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate activation.

"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," he says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that expands choke points and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers says the game Season 27 is all about providing gamers the resources required to compete in the competition.

"Really, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.