The Battle Royale's Specialized Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible During This Update
The game developers have a special treat in store for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Fans of this game's super-slick movement can rejoice to learn that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped launches on November 4th.
Introducing Mantle Boosting
Dubbed "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a burst of propulsion when scaling ledges and walls. As explained lead battle royale designer the design lead, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "ledge boosting." However it's no easy feat for casual gamers, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or esports competitions. In this update, the team is making it easier for everyone to execute these tricky speed-boosts.
"This technique have been in Apex for some time, but the movement isn't easy to perform and gamers might not realize it [is in the game] without outside knowledge," Canavese states. "Now including a visual cue so players can clearly identify when and how to trigger the high-octane movement ability, making accessible the feature and introducing fresh strategies to compete for a much wider base."
The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics
What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique available to everyone? Principal designer Josh Mohan says the team wants gamers to feel powerful — even those who are new.
"[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we looked around at other games, looked at what the community are doing, and we said, 'What if we provide these capabilities to more players?'" the designer clarifies. "Because right now, some of these techniques are kind of janky to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit precise timings. We proposed, 'What if we create a polished implementation?'"
The Amped Update Movement Focus
Movement is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with Legends Horizon, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant receiving enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and the Gravity Lift will propel users upward much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and capability to provide movement bonuses to allies in range. But it's aerial this Legend who's getting significant improvements this season, with multiple tweaks applied to enhance her as stronger, quicker, and more lethal.
"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and Evac Towers, it seemed like she fell behind in current the game. This presented a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially restore her to former prominence."
Enhancements to the Aerial Legend
To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, Holstead notes the team assessed each of her abilities and implemented significant changes. Her VTOL Jets received improvements, increasing her speed during flight, and the jets themselves regenerates much quicker, allowing the player to spend more time aloft. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which has also been upgraded to mark enemies who take damage from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive skill — which lifts her entire squad into the air for repositioning or escape — requires reduced delay to fire up. Additionally, she gains recently added perk choices that players can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate activation.
"Her jet pack now delivers on the pilot experience," he says.
Map Changes
Additionally, the lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly facelift, with an extensive redesign that opens up choke points and makes securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. The developers state the game this update focuses on providing gamers the tools required to keep up with the competition.
"Essentially, we were looking at the game's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," says lead Legend designer the lead.
Apex Legends Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.
