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The game developers has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature gives players a surge of propulsion when climbing over obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously been a feature of the game for some time, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and is mainly used by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or tournaments. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to execute these advanced movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for some time, but the movement requires skill to pull off and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer states. "Now including a visual cue so users can easily see when and how to activate the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a once niche movement quirk accessible to all players? Principal designer the development lead explains the team aims for gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we examined at other games, observed what the community execute, and we wondered, 'What if we extend these capabilities to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Because right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to access — you need to change controls and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we create a more official version?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is primarily the central theme in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting buffs to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will propel players into the air faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to those nearby. However it's the high-flying Valkyrie receiving the most attention now, with various adjustments applied to make her stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"I think there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," states character developer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier previously, but with the introduction of other characters, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in current Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to revisit multiple elements in her abilities and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead notes Respawn assessed each of her abilities and introduced significant changes. Her jetpack have been upgraded, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment now recharge three times faster, enabling the player to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts teammates skyward for redeployment or escape — now takes reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that users can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate activation.

"Her jet pack fulfills the pilot experience," he comments.

Map Changes

Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn state the game Season 27 is all about giving players the tools they need to keep up with matches.

"Essentially, we were looking at Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer the lead.

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