The Battle Royale's Niche Traversal Techniques Become Widely Accessible This Season
The game developers have an exciting surprise prepared for Apex Legends gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of this game's highly fluid movement will be pleased to discover that a new movement mechanic will be introduced when the Amped season launches on Nov. 4.
Unveiling Mantle Boosting
Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. According to key developer the design lead, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." But it's challenging for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to execute these advanced movement boosts.
"Mantle Boosts have been in Apex for some time, but the movement requires skill to perform and gamers might not realize it's possible without external guides," Canavese states. "We're adding a visual cue so users can easily see the timing to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the feature and introducing fresh strategies to play for a much wider base."
Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics
What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer the development lead says the team wants gamers to experience empowerment — even those who are new.
"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we looked around at other games, observed what the community execute, and we wondered, 'What if we extend these capabilities to a broader audience?'" the designer clarifies. "Because currently, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — it requires to change controls and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we make a polished version?'"
Season 27 Movement Focus
Movement is largely the central theme in Season 27, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost players upward much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and the ability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. However the spotlight is on aerial this Legend receiving significant improvements this season, with various adjustments applied to make her stronger, faster, and deadlier.
"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in current the game. It was an ideal chance for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to her glory days."
Valkyrie's Upgrades
To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, Holstead says Respawn assessed each of her abilities and implemented significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed during flight, and this equipment now recharge three times faster, enabling the player to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts her entire squad into the air for redeployment or escape — now takes much less time to activate. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that users can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate activation.
"Her jet pack fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," he says.
Olympus Improvements
Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly overhaul, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers state Apex Legends Season 27 is all about providing gamers the resources they need to keep up with the competition.
"Really, we examined the game's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan.
The battle royale Season 27: Amped launches Nov. 4 at the specified times.
