🔗 Share this article Apex Legends' Niche Movement Mechanics Are Going Mainstream This Season Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for festive season. Fans of this game's highly fluid traversal will be pleased to learn that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on November 4th. Introducing Mantle Boosting Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a surge of propulsion when scaling obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for some time, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these tricky movement boosts. "This technique have been in the game for some time, but executing it requires skill to perform and gamers would never know it's possible without external guides," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so users can easily see when and how to activate the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the mechanic and adding new ways to play for a much wider base." The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics What's the reason for making a once niche technique available to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan explains developers wants players to feel powerful — even those who are new. "[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we examined at other games, looked at what our players are doing, and we wondered, 'What if we provide these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan explains. "Because right now, certain techniques are kind of janky to use — you need to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we make a polished version?'" The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility Movement is primarily the central theme in this season, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel players upward faster than it used to. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and capability to grant speed boosts to those nearby. However the spotlight is on the high-flying Valkyrie receiving the most attention now, with various adjustments implemented to enhance her as stronger, faster, and more lethal. "In my opinion many agree that her moment is here," says character developer the designer. "Certainly that she's been top-tier previously, but due to the addition of other characters, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of bring her back to former prominence." Enhancements to the Aerial Legend To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, the developer says the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, boosting her speed during flight, and this equipment regenerates much quicker, enabling her to spend more time in the air. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which lifts teammates skyward for redeployment or retreat — now takes much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that players can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation. "Valkyrie's equipment now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead comments. Map Changes Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and renders claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers says Apex Legends Season 27 is all about giving players the resources they need to keep up with matches. "Essentially, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan. Apex Legends Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.