The Battle Royale's Specialized Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible During This Update
Respawn Entertainment have an exciting surprise prepared for Apex Legends players, perfectly timed for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's super-slick traversal can rejoice to discover that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season launches on Nov. 4.
Unveiling Mantle Boosting
Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this feature provides gamers a burst of propulsion when climbing over ledges and walls. As explained key developer Eric Canavese, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, Respawn is making it easier for players of all skill levels to execute these tricky speed-boosts.
"This technique existed in the game for some time, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," the designer explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so players can easily see the timing to activate the high-octane traversal skill, opening up the feature and introducing fresh strategies to play for more players."
Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics
Why make a previously obscure movement quirk available to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan says developers wants players to feel powerful — including ones who are inexperienced.
"[The playerbase] performs advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, looked at what the community are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we extend some of this power to more players?'" Mohan explains. "Because right now, certain techniques are kind of janky to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. So we said, 'What if we create a more official implementation?'"
Season 27 Movement Focus
Mobility is primarily the name of the game in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting buffs 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 capability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. However the spotlight is on aerial Valkyrie receiving the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks applied to enhance her as stronger, quicker, and more lethal.
"I think there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states character developer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. It was a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to former prominence."
Enhancements to the Aerial Legend
To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer notes the team assessed each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, boosting velocity during flight, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, enabling her to remain longer in the air. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who take damage from it. Her Skyward Dive skill — which launches teammates into the air for redeployment or retreat — now takes reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added Legend Upgrades that players can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.
"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," he comments.
Olympus Improvements
Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up choke points and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers says Apex Legends Season 27 is all about providing gamers the resources required to keep up with matches.
"Essentially, we examined Apex's core identity as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer the lead.
The battle royale Season 27: Amped launches November 4th at the specified times.
