Apex Legends' Niche Movement Mechanics Become Widely Accessible During This Update
The game developers have an exciting surprise prepared for Apex Legends gamers, arriving just in time for festive season. Enthusiasts of this game's super-slick traversal will be pleased to learn that a new movement mechanic is being implemented when Season 27: Amped launches on Nov. 4.
Unveiling Mantle Boosting
Named "Mantle Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese, Mantle Boosting was previously existed of the game for quite a while, often called as "ledge boosting." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and is mainly used by competitive players in competitive play or tournaments. This season, the team simplifies the process for everyone to execute these tricky speed-boosts.
"Mantle Boosts existed in the game 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 explains. "Now including a visual cue so users can clearly identify the timing to trigger the fast-paced movement ability, making accessible the mechanic and introducing new ways to play for more players."
The Reasoning Behind Opening Up Advanced Mechanics
What's the reason for making a previously obscure technique available to everyone? Lead Legend designer Josh Mohan says the team aims for players to experience empowerment — including ones who are inexperienced.
"[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-gliding and tap-strafing, and we looked around at our competition, observed what the community are doing, and we said, 'What if we provide some of this power to more players?'" the designer explains. "Since right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to access — it requires to remap your keybinds and execute within precise timings. We proposed, 'How about we make a more official version?'"
Season 27 Emphasis on Mobility
Mobility is largely the name of the game in Season 27, with characters the gravity mage, Rampart, and the aerial combatant all getting enhancements to maintain them in motion. The cooldown period on her tactical ability has been decreased, and this skill will propel users upward much quicker than it used to. Her defensive walls feature a roof and capability to provide speed boosts to allies in range. But it's aerial this Legend who's getting significant improvements this season, with various adjustments applied to enhance her as stronger, faster, and more lethal.
"In my opinion there's quite a consensus that Valkyrie's time has arrived," says Legend designer Ian Holstead. "There's no doubt that she's been top-tier previously, but with the introduction of other characters, movement[-based] passives, and redeployment tools, it seemed like she's not very relevant in current Apex. This presented a really great opportunity for the team to revisit a bunch of aspects [of her kit] and sort of restore her to her glory days."
Enhancements to the Aerial Legend
To restore her competitive status in current strategies, Holstead says Respawn assessed each of her abilities and implemented some powerful changes. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing velocity while airborne, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, enabling the player to remain longer aloft. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to mark opponents who are hit from the missiles. Her Skyward Dive ability — which lifts her entire squad skyward for repositioning or retreat — requires reduced delay to fire up. She's also getting some new perk choices that users can select to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her Missile Swarm, or further speed up her ultimate takeoff time.
"Her jet pack fulfills the pilot experience," he comments.
Olympus Improvements
Even the game's only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a movement-friendly overhaul, with an extensive redesign that opens up bottlenecks and makes claiming the high ground more manageable. Respawn state the game Season 27 focuses on giving players the tools required to compete in the competition.
"Essentially, we were looking at the game's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," explains lead Legend designer the lead.
The battle royale Season 27: Amped releases November 4th at the specified times.
