The Battle Royale's Niche Movement Mechanics Are Going Mainstream During This Update

The game developers has an exciting surprise in store for Apex Legends players, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a burst of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. In this update, the team simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"Mantle Boosts existed in Apex for some time, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the mechanic and adding fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains the team aims for players to feel powerful — even those who are new.

"[The playerbase] performs advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we examined at our competition, looked at what the community are doing, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan explains. "Because right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — you need to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we create a polished implementation?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Mobility is largely the central theme in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost players into the air faster than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover feature a roof and the ability to provide movement bonuses to those nearby. But the spotlight is on the high-flying Valkyrie receiving the most attention this season, with various adjustments applied to make her stronger, quicker, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that her moment is here," says character developer the designer. "There's no doubt she was 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 today's Apex. It was a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and essentially restore her to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer notes the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced significant changes. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves regenerates much quicker, allowing the player to spend more time aloft. She can no longer be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag opponents who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches teammates skyward for repositioning or retreat — requires reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.

"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on the pilot experience," Holstead says.

Map Changes

Additionally, the lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers says the game this update is all about giving players the tools they need to keep up with matches.

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

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