Apex Legends' Specialized Traversal Techniques Become Widely Accessible This Season

Respawn Entertainment has a special treat in store for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's super-slick traversal can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a burst of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique has unofficially existed of the game for quite a while, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, the team simplifies the process 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 pull off and gamers might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer states. "Now including a visual cue so players can easily see when and how to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding new ways to compete for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique available to all players? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says the team aims for players to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we looked around at other games, looked at what our players are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we provide these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan clarifies. "Since right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — you need to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. We proposed, 'What if we make a more official implementation?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Movement is largely the central theme in this season, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving buffs to maintain them mobile. Recovery time on her tactical ability is shorter, and this skill will boost users upward much quicker than before. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. However it's aerial this Legend receiving the most attention now, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says Legend designer the designer. "Certainly that she's been dominant previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to reexamine a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and essentially restore her to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer says the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful changes. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves regenerates much quicker, enabling the player to spend more time in the air. She can no longer be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which lifts her entire squad skyward 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, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her ultimate activation.

"Her jet pack fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Additionally, the only floating arena, this location, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands choke points and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn state the game Season 27 is all about providing gamers the tools they need to keep up with the competition.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains principal designer the lead.

The battle royale the Amped season releases November 4th at the specified times.