The Battle Royale's Specialized Traversal Techniques Become Widely Accessible During This Update

Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of this game's highly fluid movement can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped launches on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a burst of propulsion when climbing over obstacles. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of the game for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.

"This technique have been in the game for some time, but the movement requires skill to pull off and a player would never know it's possible without external guides," the designer states. "We're adding a visual cue so players can easily see when and how to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, opening up the feature and introducing new ways to play for more players."

Why Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique available to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan says developers wants gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community 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 said, 'What if we provide some of this power to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Because currently, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'How about we create a more official implementation?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Mobility is primarily the name of the game in Season 27, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving buffs to help keep them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will boost players into the air faster than it used to. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. However the spotlight is on the high-flying Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements now, with various adjustments implemented to make her more potent, quicker, and more lethal.

"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," states character developer Ian Holstead. "Certainly that she's been dominant in the past, but due to the addition of new Legends, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in current Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to revisit multiple elements [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to former prominence."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, the developer says the team assessed each of her abilities and implemented significant modifications. Her jetpack have been upgraded, increasing velocity while airborne, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, allowing the player to spend more time aloft. She can no longer be harmed from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts teammates skyward for redeployment or escape — requires reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added Legend Upgrades that players can choose to conserve resources, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack fulfills the pilot experience," he comments.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn says the game Season 27 is all about giving players the resources required to keep up with matches.

"Essentially, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer the lead.

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