The Battle Royale's Specialized Traversal Techniques Become Widely Accessible During This Update
Respawn Entertainment has a special treat prepared for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for the holidays. Fans of this game's super-slick movement will be pleased to learn that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.
Introducing The Mantle Boost
Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a burst of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, the team is making it easier for everyone to execute these tricky speed-boosts.
"This technique existed in Apex 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 states. "We're adding a visual cue so players can clearly identify the timing to activate the high-octane movement ability, opening up the mechanic and introducing new ways to play for a much wider base."
Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics
Why make a once niche technique accessible to everyone? Principal designer the development lead says developers aims for gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.
"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at other games, observed what the community are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we provide some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Since currently, some of these techniques are kind of janky to access — you need to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we create a more official implementation?'"
The Amped Update Movement Focus
Movement is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with Legends the gravity mage, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and this skill will propel players upward much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls now include a roof and the ability to provide speed boosts to those nearby. However it's aerial this Legend 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," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier previously, but with the introduction of other characters, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she fell behind in current Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of restore her to her glory days."
Valkyrie's Upgrades
To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead notes Respawn evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, boosting her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves regenerates three times faster, enabling her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to mark opponents who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches teammates skyward for redeployment or retreat — requires reduced delay to fire up. She's also getting some new perk choices that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.
"Her jet pack fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead comments.
Map Changes
Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, receives a mobility-focused overhaul, with an extensive redesign that expands choke points and renders claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. Respawn state Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on giving players the resources they need to compete in the competition.
"Essentially, we were looking at the game's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," says lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.
The battle royale the Amped season releases November 4th at the specified times.
