Apex Legends' Specialized Traversal Techniques Are Going Mainstream During This Update
The game developers has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale players, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped launches on Nov. 4.
Introducing Mantle Boosting
Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a surge of propulsion when climbing over obstacles. According to key developer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting was previously been a feature of the game for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by pro gamers in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, Respawn is making it easier for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.
"This technique existed in Apex for some time, but executing it requires skill to pull off and a player would never know it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the feature and adding fresh strategies to compete for more players."
Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics
Why make a once niche technique available to everyone? Principal designer the development lead says the team aims for players to feel powerful — even those who are new.
"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, observed what our players are doing, and we said, 'What if we extend some of this power to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Because right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to use — it requires to change controls and hit one-frame windows. We proposed, 'How about we make a more official implementation?'"
Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility
Mobility is largely the central theme in this season, with characters Horizon, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to maintain them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel users upward faster than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and the ability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. However it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks applied to make her more potent, faster, and more lethal.
"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier previously, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in today's the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of restore her to former prominence."
Enhancements to the Aerial Legend
To reclaim her competitive status in current strategies, Holstead says Respawn evaluated each of her abilities and implemented some powerful changes. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, boosting velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, allowing her to remain longer aloft. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches her entire squad skyward for repositioning or retreat — now takes much less time to activate. She's also getting some new Legend Upgrades that players can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.
"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," he comments.
Olympus Improvements
Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers state Apex Legends this update is all about providing gamers the tools required to compete in matches.
"Essentially, we were looking at Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," says lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.
Apex Legends the Amped season releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.
