Apex Legends' Specialized Traversal Techniques Are Going Mainstream This Season

The game developers has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for the holidays. Fans of the battle royale's super-slick movement can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped launches on Nov. 4.

Introducing The Mantle Boost

Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting has unofficially existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, often called as "mantle jumping." However it's challenging for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"This technique existed in the game for a while, but the movement requires skill to perform and a player might not realize it's possible without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so players can easily see the timing to trigger the high-octane traversal skill, making accessible the mechanic and adding fresh strategies to play for a much wider base."

Why Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a once niche technique available to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains developers wants players to experience empowerment — even those who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we examined at other games, observed what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to a broader audience?'" the designer explains. "Since right now, some of these techniques are somewhat awkward to access — you need to change controls and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'How about we make a polished version?'"

The Amped Update Movement Focus

Mobility is largely the central theme in this season, with Legends the gravity mage, Rampart, and Valkyrie all getting enhancements to help keep them in motion. Recovery time on her tactical ability is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will boost players upward faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and the ability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's the high-flying this Legend who's getting significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as stronger, faster, and more lethal.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time has arrived," states Legend designer the designer. "Certainly that she's been dominant in the past, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it felt like she's not very relevant in today's Apex. It was an ideal chance for the team to revisit multiple elements in her abilities and essentially bring her back to former prominence."

Enhancements to the Aerial Legend

To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, the developer says the team evaluated all her skills and introduced significant modifications. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, boosting velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge much quicker, enabling her to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to tag enemies who are hit from it. Her squad redeploy ability — which lifts teammates into the air for repositioning or retreat — now takes reduced delay to fire up. She's also getting some new perk choices that players can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.

"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," Holstead says.

Map Changes

Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly overhaul, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn says Apex Legends Season 27 focuses on providing gamers the tools required to compete in the competition.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's core identity as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer the lead.

The battle royale the Amped season releases November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.