Apex Legends' Niche Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible During This Update

The game developers have a special treat prepared for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick traversal can rejoice to learn that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on Nov. 4.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature gives players a surge of propulsion when scaling obstacles. According to key developer Eric Canavese, this technique was previously existed of the game for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and is mainly used 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 Apex for a while, but the movement isn't easy to pull off and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," the designer states. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane movement ability, opening up the feature and adding new ways to play for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

Why make a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Principal designer Josh Mohan says developers wants players to experience empowerment — including ones who are new.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what the community execute, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Since currently, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we make a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is primarily the name of the game in Season 27, with Legends Horizon, Rampart, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and this skill will boost players into the air faster than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover feature a roof and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend receiving significant improvements this season, with various adjustments applied to enhance her as stronger, quicker, and deadlier.

"I think there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier in the past, but due to the addition of other characters, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to revisit multiple elements [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, Holstead says Respawn assessed each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, boosting her speed while airborne, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, allowing her to remain longer in the air. She can no longer be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts teammates into the air for redeployment or escape — now takes much less time to fire up. She's also getting some new Legend Upgrades that players can select to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," he comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers says Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on giving players the resources required to compete in the competition.

"Essentially, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains principal designer Josh Mohan.

Apex Legends the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.