Apex Legends' Niche Traversal Techniques Are Going Mainstream This Season

The game developers have a special treat in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of the battle royale's super-slick movement will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.

Unveiling The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this ability gives players a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. As explained key developer the design lead, this technique has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or tournaments. This season, the team is making it easier 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 gamers would never know it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see when and how to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the feature and introducing fresh strategies to play for more players."

Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics

Why make a previously obscure movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer the development lead says the team aims for gamers to experience empowerment — even those who are new.

"Our community is doing other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we examined at our competition, observed what our players execute, and we wondered, 'How can we extend these capabilities to a broader audience?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'How about we make a more official implementation?'"

Season 27 Movement Focus

Movement is primarily the central theme in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on her tactical ability is shorter, and this skill will propel players upward much quicker than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and capability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. However the spotlight is on the high-flying this Legend who's getting the most attention now, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as stronger, faster, and more lethal.

"In my opinion many agree that her moment is here," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "Certainly she was dominant in the past, but due to the addition of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for us to reexamine multiple elements [of her kit] and sort of bring her back to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To restore her competitive status in the game's meta, the developer says the team evaluated each of her abilities and introduced some powerful modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, boosting her speed during flight, and the jets themselves regenerates three times faster, allowing the player to remain longer in the air. She can no longer take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which was enhanced to mark opponents who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts teammates into the air for redeployment or retreat — requires much less time to activate. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that players can select to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills the pilot experience," Holstead comments.

Olympus Improvements

Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up choke points and makes claiming the high ground a bit less daunting. The developers state Apex Legends Season 27 is all about providing gamers the resources required to compete in matches.

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

Apex Legends Season 27: Amped releases Nov. 4 at the specified times.