Apex Legends' Specialized Traversal Techniques Become Widely Accessible This Season
The game developers has a special treat prepared for Apex Legends players, perfectly timed for festive season. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when the Amped season goes live on Nov. 4.
Unveiling Mantle Boosting
Named "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique has unofficially been a feature of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." However it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in Ranked Mode or tournaments. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these advanced speed-boosts.
"Mantle Boosts have been in the game for a while, but executing it isn't easy to pull off and gamers might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so users can easily see the timing to trigger the fast-paced traversal skill, making accessible the mechanic and adding fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."
The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible
Why make a once niche movement quirk accessible to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says developers aims for gamers to feel powerful — even those who are new.
"Our community is doing advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what the community are doing, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to more players?'" Mohan explains. "Because right now, certain techniques are somewhat awkward to use — you need to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. So we said, 'What if we create a more official version?'"
The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility
Mobility is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with Legends the gravity mage, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to help keep them mobile. The cooldown period on her tactical ability is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will propel players upward faster than it used to. Rampart's Amped Cover now include overhead protection and the ability to grant speed boosts to allies in range. But it's aerial this Legend receiving the most attention now, with various adjustments applied to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and deadlier.
"In my opinion many agree that her moment has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier previously, but due to the addition of other characters, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she fell behind in current Apex. This presented an ideal chance for us to revisit multiple elements in her abilities and essentially restore her to her glory days."
Valkyrie's Upgrades
To restore her competitive status in the game's meta, Holstead says the team assessed all her skills and introduced some powerful changes. Her jetpack have been upgraded, boosting her speed while airborne, and this equipment regenerates three times faster, enabling her to remain longer in the air. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her squad redeploy ability — which launches her entire squad into the air for redeployment or escape — now takes much less time to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added Legend Upgrades that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, expand the spread of her rockets, or accelerate her Skyward Dive activation.
"Her jet pack now delivers on that jet-fighter fantasy," he says.
Olympus Improvements
Additionally, the lone airborne map, this location, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn state the game this update is all about providing gamers the resources they need to keep up with matches.
"Really, we examined Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer the lead.
The battle royale the Amped season launches Nov. 4 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.