**Apex Legends’ Amped Season Brings Reworked Olympus, Legend Updates, and New Mechanics**
Apex Legends is just hours away from launching its latest season, Amped. This new season will take players back into the skies with a reworked Olympus map while introducing exciting gameplay tweaks, rebalanced Legends, and fresh mechanics. Among the characters receiving some of the most significant updates are Valkyrie, Rampart, and Horizon—each getting a new lease on life to better fit the evolving meta.
To dive deeper into these changes, Shacknews sat down with Apex Legends developers Ian Holstead (Legend Designer), Casey O’Brien (Lead Legend Designer), Eric Canavese (Lead Battle Royale Designer), and Clement Bachellerie (Lead Ranked Designer) to discuss what players can expect this season.
—
### Big Changes Coming to Valkyrie, Rampart, and Horizon
**Shacknews:** Can you walk us through some of the bigger changes coming to Valkyrie, Rampart, and Horizon? How did the team decide to approach their updates for the shifting meta, and what should players expect?
**Ian Holstead, Legend Designer:** Valkyrie is definitely a primary focus this season. Her jetpack has been revamped significantly—cooldowns have been adjusted, and her speed increased quite a bit. This makes her jetpack feel different to use but also more powerful. Additionally, her Tactical ability has received some quality of life improvements and buffs, and her Ultimate features exciting new upgrades and enhancements. Overall, Valkyrie should feel fresh and more dynamic to play.
For Rampart, the team concentrated on upgrading her walls. They are now much more useful in a variety of situations and help players feel safer during combat. We also added a neat new mechanic where dealing damage around your walls grants a significant speed boost, alongside some cool upgrades that enhance her playstyle.
Horizon received fun “movement-y” upgrades, bringing back some of the power she had lost over the years through nerfs.
We chose these Legends because, frankly, they had been somewhat neglected. Their pick rates were low, and they were ripe for love and improvement. Plus, they fit well into the velocity and speed-focused changes we’re introducing this season. They were exciting candidates for meaningful updates.
—
### Introducing the Double Tap Hop-Up on the Alternator
**Shacknews:** What can you tell us about the new Double Tap hop-up? It sounds like the team is really excited about it.
**Casey O’Brien, Lead Legend Designer:** The Double Tap hop-up is coming to the Alternator this season. It’s a really cool addition we came up with to emphasize speed and velocity in combat. The hop-up makes the Alternator shoot from both barrels, effectively doubling the bullets fired.
This makes the Alternator a very powerful option at close range, which fits our intention of steering the meta toward more close-quarters combat. We’ve seen the current meta lean heavily into long-range, and with the Double Tap, we’re hoping to encourage faster, closer fights. It’s simple: double bullets, double damage, and double the fun. Players can look forward to shredding opponents with this upgraded SMG.
—
### Close-Range Meta: Which Legends Benefit?
**Shacknews:** Since you’re shifting toward a close-range meta, which Legends do you think will thrive more under this setup?
**Ian Holstead:** Many Legends can perform well across different combat ranges. Some are naturally more suited to close-range; for example, Gibraltar has always excelled in shotgun-heavy metas. But overall, most Legends are versatile enough to adapt and benefit from these changes.
It’s challenging to pinpoint one Legend that will dominate specifically with SMGs or close-range weapons, but all characters should see some advantage or improvement in their playstyles with the new meta.
—
### The Mantle Boost Update: Enhancing Movement and Locomotion
**Shacknews:** Tell us about the Mantle Boost update and how the team is improving movement and locomotion for all players.
**Clement Bachellerie, Lead Ranked Designer:** Apex Legends is a movement-based shooter at its core, so we’re always exploring ways to evolve that fundamental aspect of our game. We’ve seen players invent cool movement techniques like supergliding and tap-strafing, but these often require complex keybinds, precise timing, or specific hardware.
With Mantle Boost, we want to make some of these advanced maneuvers more official and accessible to a wider audience. This new system captures what many players are already doing with superglide and formalizes it as an official movement mechanic. The goal is to open up more movement options for all players, making the game’s advanced mobility easier and more fun to use.
—
### Player Feedback Driving Balance Decisions
**Shacknews:** How has recent player feedback influenced which weapons and Legends you are balancing now and in the future?
**Clement Bachellerie:** We are increasingly transparent about our reasoning behind balance changes, often sharing insights into pick rates and community feedback. This trend will continue in the coming year as we roll out deeper dives into our decision-making.
Right now, we constantly monitor live data and player reactions, and we’re ready to intervene between patches to address any runaway issues as they arise. Player feedback is crucial in helping us maintain a balanced and enjoyable game.
—
### Impact on Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS)
**Shacknews:** Apex Legends Global Series is a huge part of the game. How do you expect the pro scene to react to these changes?
**Casey O’Brien:** On the weapons side, we’re dialing back marksman rifles and snipers, which have dominated ALGS in recent months. I fully expect this to push a meta shift away from long-range engagements toward more close-range fights. That will shake things up at the highest level of competitive play.
Some pros will be excited by a fresh meta, while others might be less thrilled—it really depends on personal preferences. But overall, we anticipate a significant change in weapon choices during ALGS play.
**Ian Holstead:** Regarding Legends, the bans have already had a big impact on how certain characters are used in ALGS. The Legends we’re updating—Valkyrie, Horizon, and Rampart—have all been popular at different points in competitive play. Rampart still sees some play, though she’s less common now.
It will be interesting to see how these Legends re-emerge and perform with their new improvements. With the Legend ban system keeping things diverse, the meta is more varied and less black-and-white compared to weapon dominance, so we expect to see some exciting developments.
—
As Apex Legends’ Amped season goes live, players can look forward to a faster-paced, close-quarters combat experience with refreshed Legends, powerful new gear options like the Double Tap hop-up, and improved movement mechanics that enhance the game’s core mobility. Stay tuned for more updates as the season unfolds!
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146645/apex-legends-amped-interview
