The Battle Royale's Specialized Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible During This Update
The game developers have an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick movement can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped goes live on Nov. 4.
Introducing Mantle Boosting
Named "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this feature gives players a surge of forward momentum when scaling ledges and walls. As explained key developer the design lead, this technique has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, the team simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these tricky speed-boosts.
"This technique have been in the game for a while, but executing it isn't easy to perform and gamers would never know it's possible without external guides," Canavese explains. "We're adding a visual cue so players can easily see the timing to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the feature and adding new ways to compete for more players."
Why Make It Accessible
Why make a once niche movement quirk accessible to all players? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says the team aims for gamers to experience empowerment — even those who are new.
"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what the community execute, and we wondered, 'How can we provide these capabilities to a broader audience?'" the designer clarifies. "Since right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to access — you need to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. We proposed, 'What if we make a polished implementation?'"
The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility
Movement is largely the central theme in this season, with Legends Horizon, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them in motion. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will propel players into the air much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and the ability to grant speed boosts to those nearby. But the spotlight is on aerial Valkyrie receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks applied to enhance her as more potent, faster, and more lethal.
"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states Legend designer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was dominant previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented an ideal chance for us to reexamine multiple elements in her abilities and essentially restore her to her glory days."
Enhancements to the Aerial Legend
To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, Holstead notes the team evaluated each of her abilities and implemented significant changes. Her jetpack have been upgraded, increasing velocity during flight, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, enabling her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to tag enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches teammates into the air for repositioning or escape — now takes reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that players can choose to conserve resources, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her Skyward Dive takeoff time.
"Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on the pilot experience," Holstead says.
Olympus Improvements
Additionally, the lone airborne map, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up choke points and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. The developers says Apex Legends this update focuses on providing gamers the tools required to keep up with the competition.
"Essentially, we were looking at the game's core identity as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan.
The battle royale the Amped season launches Nov. 4 at the specified times.
