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Respawn Entertainment has a special treat in store for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped launches on November 4th.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Named "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when climbing over ledges and walls. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of the game for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's challenging for casual gamers, and is mainly used by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for some time, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and a player would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," the designer states. "Now including a visual cue so users can clearly identify the timing to activate the high-octane movement ability, opening up the mechanic and introducing fresh strategies to play for a much wider base."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique available to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains developers aims for players to experience empowerment — even those who are new.

"[The playerbase] performs advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we looked around at our competition, observed what our players are doing, and we wondered, 'What if we provide these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because currently, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we create a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is largely the central theme in Season 27, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to maintain them mobile. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will boost users into the air much quicker than before. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to those nearby. However the spotlight is on aerial this Legend who's getting significant improvements now, with various adjustments implemented to make her stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "Certainly she was top-tier previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, Holstead notes the team assessed each of her abilities and implemented significant modifications. Her jetpack have been upgraded, increasing velocity during flight, and this equipment now recharge three times faster, enabling her to spend more time in the air. She can no longer take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to mark opponents who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches 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 users can select to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," he comments.

Olympus Improvements

Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. Respawn says Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on providing gamers the resources they need to compete in matches.

"Essentially, we examined the game's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at the specified times.