The Battle Royale's Niche Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible This Season

Respawn Entertainment has an exciting surprise prepared for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Fans of this game's super-slick traversal can rejoice to learn that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season launches on November 4th.

Unveiling Mantle Boosting

Named "Momentum Boosting" by Respawn, this feature gives players a burst of forward momentum when climbing over obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, this technique has unofficially existed of the game for some time, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." However it's no easy feat for the average player, and typically employed by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. In this update, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky movement boosts.

"This technique existed in the game for some time, but the movement isn't easy to perform and a player might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," the designer states. "We're adding a Mantle Boost indicator so users can clearly identify when and how to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the feature and introducing new ways to play for more players."

The Reasoning Behind Make It Accessible

What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique accessible to all players? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan explains the team wants players to feel powerful — including ones who are inexperienced.

"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what the community are doing, and we said, 'How can we provide these capabilities to a broader audience?'" Mohan clarifies. "Because currently, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within one-frame windows. We proposed, 'What if we create a more official version?'"

The Amped Update Emphasis on Mobility

Mobility is largely the central theme in Season 27, with characters Horizon, Rampart, and the aerial combatant receiving buffs to maintain them in motion. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel users upward much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls feature a roof and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. But the spotlight is on aerial Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements now, with multiple tweaks applied to enhance her as more potent, quicker, and deadlier.

"In my opinion many agree that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says character developer the designer. "There's no doubt she was top-tier previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, mobility perks, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she fell behind in current the game. This presented an ideal chance for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to her glory days."

Valkyrie's Upgrades

To reclaim her competitive status in the game's meta, Holstead notes Respawn evaluated all her skills and implemented significant modifications. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing her speed while airborne, and the jets themselves regenerates three times faster, allowing the player to remain longer aloft. She can no longer take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who take damage from it. Her squad redeploy skill — which lifts her entire squad skyward for repositioning or escape — now takes reduced delay to fire up. She's also getting recently added perk choices that players can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or accelerate her ultimate takeoff time.

"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," Holstead comments.

Map Changes

Even the game's lone airborne map, this location, receives a mobility-focused facelift, with major changes that expands bottlenecks and renders securing elevated positions more manageable. The developers says the game this update focuses on providing gamers the resources required to compete in the competition.

"Really, we were looking at Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer the lead.

The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.