Apex Legends' Niche Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible During This Update
The game developers has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's super-slick traversal will be pleased to learn that an innovative traversal feature will be introduced when Season 27: Amped launches on Nov. 4.
Unveiling Mantle Boosting
Named "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this feature provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when scaling ledges and walls. According to key developer the design lead, this technique was previously existed of Apex Legends for quite a while, usually referred to as "mantle jumping." But it's challenging for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky speed-boosts.
"This technique existed in Apex for some time, but executing it requires skill to pull off and a player would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," Canavese explains. "Now including a visual cue so users can clearly identify the timing to activate the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the feature and introducing fresh strategies to play for more players."
Why Make It Accessible
Why make a once niche technique accessible to everyone? Principal designer the development lead says the team aims for gamers to feel powerful — even those who are inexperienced.
"Our community performs advanced techniques like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we examined at our competition, observed what our players are doing, and we said, 'How can we extend these capabilities to more players?'" the designer explains. "Because right now, some of these advanced [movement] mechanics are kind of janky to access — it requires to change controls and hit precise timings. So we said, 'What if we make a more official implementation?'"
Season 27 Movement Focus
Mobility is primarily the central theme in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, the defensive specialist, and the aerial combatant all getting buffs to maintain them mobile. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and the Gravity Lift will boost players upward faster than before. Rampart's Amped Cover feature overhead protection and the ability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. However it's the high-flying Valkyrie who's getting significant improvements now, with various adjustments implemented to make her stronger, quicker, and deadlier.
"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time is here," states character developer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier previously, but with the introduction of new Legends, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she fell behind in today's Apex. This presented an ideal chance for us to revisit multiple elements [of her kit] and essentially restore her to former prominence."
Valkyrie's Upgrades
To restore Valkyrie's relevance in current strategies, the developer says Respawn assessed all her skills and introduced significant changes. Her jetpack received improvements, increasing velocity while airborne, and this equipment now recharge much quicker, allowing her to remain longer aloft. Now she won't take damage from her own Missile Swarm, which has also been upgraded to tag opponents who are hit from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches her entire squad skyward for redeployment or retreat — now takes much less time to activate. Additionally, she gains some new perk choices that players can choose to conserve resources, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate activation.
"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills that jet-fighter fantasy," he says.
Olympus Improvements
Even the game's lone airborne map, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with an extensive redesign that expands bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn state the game Season 27 is all about providing gamers the tools required to compete in matches.
"Essentially, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a movement shooter," explains lead Legend designer Josh Mohan.
The battle royale the Amped season launches November 4th at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST.
