The Battle Royale's Specialized Movement Mechanics Are Going Mainstream During This Update
The game developers has an exciting surprise in store for the popular battle royale players, perfectly timed for the holidays. Enthusiasts of the battle royale's highly fluid movement can rejoice to discover that an innovative traversal feature is being implemented when the Amped season goes live on November 4th.
Introducing Mantle Boosting
Named "Momentum Boosting" by the developers, this ability provides gamers a surge of forward momentum when scaling obstacles. According to lead battle royale designer the design lead, this technique was previously existed of the game for some time, often called as "mantle jumping." But it's no easy feat for the average player, and is mainly used by pro gamers in competitive play or esports competitions. This season, Respawn simplifies the process for everyone to successfully perform these tricky movement boosts.
"Mantle Boosts existed in the game for a while, but the movement isn't easy to pull off and a player would never know it [is in the game] without external guides," the designer explains. "Now including a Mantle Boost indicator so players can easily see the timing to activate the fast-paced traversal skill, opening up the feature and adding new ways to compete for more players."
Why Make It Accessible
Why make a previously obscure movement quirk available to all players? Principal designer the development lead explains developers aims for gamers to feel powerful — including ones who are new.
"[The playerbase] performs other crazy stuff like super-glides and tap-strafes, and we looked around at our competition, looked at what the community execute, and we wondered, 'What if we extend some of this power to more players?'" Mohan clarifies. "Since right now, certain advanced [movement] mechanics are somewhat awkward to use — it requires to remap your keybinds and hit one-frame windows. 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 receiving enhancements to help keep them mobile. Recovery time on Horizon's Gravity Lift is shorter, and this skill will boost users into the air faster than it used to. Her defensive walls now include overhead protection and capability to grant movement bonuses to allies in range. However it's aerial this Legend receiving the most attention this season, with multiple tweaks implemented to enhance her as stronger, faster, and more lethal.
"I think many agree that Valkyrie's time is here," says Legend designer the designer. "There's no doubt that she's been dominant previously, but with the introduction of other characters, mobility perks, and redeployment tools, it felt like she fell behind in today's the game. It was a really great opportunity for us to revisit a bunch of aspects in her abilities and essentially bring her back to former prominence."
Valkyrie's Upgrades
To reclaim Valkyrie's relevance in the game's meta, Holstead notes the team evaluated all her skills and introduced some powerful changes. Her VTOL Jets have been upgraded, increasing her speed during flight, and the jets themselves now recharge three times faster, allowing her to remain longer aloft. Now she won't take damage from her ultimate ability, which was enhanced to tag enemies who are hit from the missiles. Her squad redeploy skill — which launches her entire squad into the air for repositioning or escape — now takes reduced delay to activate. Additionally, she gains some new Legend Upgrades that users can choose to reduce fuel consumption, widen the area of her rockets, or further speed up her ultimate activation.
"Valkyrie's equipment fulfills the pilot experience," Holstead says.
Olympus Improvements
Additionally, the only floating arena, Olympus, is getting a mobility-focused overhaul, with an extensive redesign that expands choke points and renders securing elevated positions a bit less daunting. Respawn state Apex Legends this update is all about giving players the tools they need to compete in matches.
"Really, we examined Apex's fundamental nature as a fast-paced FPS," explains principal designer the lead.
The battle royale the Amped season launches Nov. 4 at the specified times.
