Apex Legends' Niche Traversal Techniques Are Going Mainstream This Season

The game developers have an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for the holidays. Fans of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a burst of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. As explained key developer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends 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 esports competitions. This season, the team is making it easier for everyone to successfully perform these advanced movement boosts.

"This technique existed in Apex for some time, but executing it isn't easy to perform and gamers would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "We're adding a visual cue so users can clearly identify when and how to activate the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the mechanic and adding new ways to play for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

Why make a previously obscure movement quirk available to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan says the team wants players to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"[The playerbase] is doing advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafing, and we examined at our competition, looked at what the community are doing, and we wondered, 'How can we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Since right now, certain techniques are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we make a more official implementation?'"

Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is primarily the name of the game in this season, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them in motion. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost users upward faster than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and capability to grant speed boosts to those nearby. But it's aerial this Legend receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks applied to enhance her as stronger, quicker, and more lethal.

"I think there's quite a consensus that her moment has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented an ideal chance for the team to revisit multiple elements [of her kit] and essentially restore her to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore her competitive status in the game's meta, the developer says the team assessed all her skills and introduced some powerful modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, boosting velocity while airborne, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, enabling her to remain longer aloft. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which lifts her entire squad skyward for redeployment or retreat — requires much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that users can select to conserve resources, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her Skyward Dive takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. Respawn state Apex Legends Season 27 is all about providing gamers the tools they need to compete in the competition.

"Essentially, we were looking at the game's core identity as a movement shooter," says principal designer Josh Mohan.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.