Apex Legends' Specialized Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible During This Update
The game developers has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's super-slick traversal will be pleased to discover that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.
Unveiling Mantle Boosting
Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this ability gives players a burst of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique has unofficially been a feature of the game for quite a while, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." However it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. In this update, the team is making it easier for everyone to successfully perform these advanced movement boosts.
"This technique have been in the game for a while, but the movement isn't easy to pull off and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "We're adding a visual cue so users can clearly identify the timing to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the mechanic and adding fresh strategies to play for more players."
Why Make It Accessible
Why make a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says the team wants gamers to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.
"Our community performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we examined at other games, observed what the community are doing, and we wondered, 'What if we extend these capabilities to a broader audience?'" Mohan explains. "Since currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we make a polished version?'"
The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility
Mobility is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving buffs to maintain them mobile. Recovery time on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel players upward faster than before. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and capability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. However the spotlight is on aerial this Legend receiving significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks implemented to make her stronger, faster, and more lethal.
"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that her moment is here," states character developer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was top-tier in the past, but with the introduction of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in current the game. It was a really great opportunity for us to reexamine a bunch of aspects in her abilities and sort of bring her back to former prominence."
Enhancements to the Aerial Legend
To restore Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, Holstead says Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves regenerates three times faster, allowing her to remain longer aloft. She can no longer take damage from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which lifts teammates skyward for redeployment or retreat — requires much less time to fire up. She's also getting recently added Legend Upgrades that users can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.
"Her jet pack fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," he comments.
Olympus Improvements
Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, receives a movement-friendly facelift, with major changes that opens up bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers state the game this update is all about providing gamers the resources they need to compete in the competition.
"Really, we examined the game's core identity as a movement shooter," says lead Legend designer the lead.
Apex Legends Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at the specified times.
