Apex Legends' Specialized Traversal Techniques Are Going Mainstream During This Update
The game developers has an exciting surprise in store for Apex Legends gamers, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's highly fluid traversal will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when Season 27: Amped goes live on November 4th.
Introducing Mantle Boosting
Named "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this ability gives players a burst of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially been a feature of the game for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, Respawn is making it easier for players of all skill levels to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.
"This technique existed in Apex for a while, but the movement requires skill to pull off and a player might not realize it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so users can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, making accessible the feature and introducing new ways to play for a much wider base."
Why Opening Up Advanced Mechanics
What's the reason for making a once niche movement quirk available to all players? Lead Legend designer the development lead says the team aims for gamers to experience empowerment — including ones who are new.
"[The playerbase] is doing other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafes, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what our players execute, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because right now, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to change controls and execute within one-frame windows. So we said, 'How about we make a polished implementation?'"
The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility
Movement is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and Valkyrie receiving enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will propel players into the air faster than it used to. Her defensive walls feature overhead protection and capability to provide speed boosts to those nearby. But it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting the most attention this season, with various adjustments implemented to make her stronger, faster, and more lethal.
"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time is here," says Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was dominant in the past, but with the introduction of other characters, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current the game. This presented an ideal chance for us to revisit multiple elements [of her kit] and essentially bring her back to former prominence."
Valkyrie's Upgrades
To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, the developer says Respawn evaluated all her skills and introduced some powerful changes. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, enabling her to remain longer aloft. Now she won't be harmed from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches her entire squad into the air for repositioning or escape — now takes reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that players can select to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her Skyward Dive activation.
"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead says.
Olympus Improvements
Additionally, the lone airborne map, this location, is getting a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. The developers says the game this update focuses on giving players the resources they need to compete in the competition.
"Really, we were looking at the game's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer the lead.
Apex Legends Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at the specified times.
