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Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid movement will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Named "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. As explained key developer Eric Canavese, this technique has unofficially been a feature of the game for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.

"This technique existed in the game for a while, but executing it isn't easy to perform and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," the designer explains. "Now including a visual cue so players can clearly identify the timing to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the feature and introducing new ways to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a once niche technique available to everyone? Principal designer the development lead explains the team aims for gamers to feel powerful — including ones who are new.

"[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what our players are doing, and we said, 'What if we provide some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Because currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — it requires to change controls and hit precise timings. So we said, 'How about we make a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the name of the game in this season, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting buffs to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and this skill will propel players into the air much quicker than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover now include a roof and capability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. However the spotlight is on aerial this Legend receiving the most attention now, with various adjustments implemented to make her stronger, faster, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," says Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant in the past, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she fell behind in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and essentially bring her back to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer notes the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, allowing her to remain longer in the air. Now she won't be harmed from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark opponents who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive ability — which launches teammates into the air for redeployment or retreat — now takes much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," he says.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. Respawn says Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on providing gamers the tools they need to compete in the competition.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale the Amped season launches November 4th at the specified times.