Non linear? Boss order?

[Rocket]

Spoilers up to the depths.

I recall reading before the game was released, that you could defeat the bosses in any order.
I've thought about this and I'm sure this isn't true. There are many points where there are blockages that you just can't pass unless you've already beaten other bosses. For example, without defeating wrath you don't get the flame hollow and can't get past the church. The depths is full of purple rocks which you can't pass unless you've gotten the force hollow. You can't get to the bone shipyard unless you have the lightning hollow to float across the whirlwinds.
The more I think about this, the more linear the game seems. So what is up with that? It's clearly totally linear.

[Astronimo]

You can go Lust- Gluttony-Wrath.
Or deal with Avarice and Sloth first. Up to you
I did lgw order in my third run with mixed phys and arcane and maxed Force and Stasis

[Rocket]

Can you? How do you get to lust without the flame hollow that you get from wrath? Or did you mean not in that particular order?
You can get to sloth without the flame hollow? I don't see how you can get there.

[Astronimo]

Originally posted by Jessica♥:

Can you? How do you get to lust without the flame hollow that you get from wrath? Or did you mean not in that particular order?
You can get to sloth without the flame hollow? I don't see how you can get there.

Flame will be yours in any case.
So it becomes not linear after Wrath first fight

[Rocket]

After wrath... Right, yeah I went onto avarice after wrath. Ah I see, you can head to the church via a serpent hole.
I guess it just seems like there is a natural progression and the choice to go fight lust instead of following the progression seems more like a sequence break to me. It is surely a choice but it doesn't seem presented as a narrative choice. Oh well.
Essentially you have two paths then. Ok thanks for clearing that up for me 🙂

[Astronimo]

Originally posted by Jessica♥:

After wrath... Right, yeah I went onto avarice after wrath. Ah I see, you can head to the church via a serpent hole.
I guess it just seems like there is a natural progression and the choice to go fight lust instead of following the progression seems more like a sequence break to me. It is surely a choice but it doesn't seem presented as a narrative choice. Oh well.
Essentially you have two paths then. Ok thanks for clearing that up for me 🙂

No need. With Flame hollow you can get to the church just through the web, after that you will need only jumping in Flame form. Fight angel, than Lust, You will get Force Hollow. So you will be able to kill Gluttony.
Storm Hollow in needed only for secret places

[Dung Defender]

Quite linear honestly.

F, Envy -> Wraith -> (Lust/Avarice/Sloth) -> Gluttony -> Pride -> Noob Wrath-> Real Envy. For Lust/Avarice/Sloth you usually go Sloth -> Avarice/Lust anyways due to low levels unless you want to farm.

So it's freaking linear. Pick your boss fight is just a lie for marketing.

[Astronimo]

Originally posted by I'm sick with two legs:

Quite linear honestly.

F, Envy -> Wraith -> (Lust/Avarice/Sloth) -> Gluttony -> Pride -> Noob Wrath-> Real Envy. For Lust/Avarice/Sloth you usually go Sloth -> Avarice/Lust anyways due to low levels unless you want to farm.

So it's freaking linear. Pick your boss fight is just a lie for marketing.

Ok.

[Dung Defender]

Originally posted by A.Jensen:

Originally posted by I'm sick with two legs:

Quite linear honestly.

F, Envy -> Wraith -> (Lust/Avarice/Sloth) -> Gluttony -> Pride -> Noob Wrath-> Real Envy. For Lust/Avarice/Sloth you usually go Sloth -> Avarice/Lust anyways due to low levels unless you want to farm.

So it's freaking linear. Pick your boss fight is just a lie for marketing.

Ok.

Sure.

[Warbreaker]

Originally posted by I'm sick with two legs:

Originally posted by A.Jensen:

Ok.

Sure.

OK, Sure, OK, Sure, good, I see you have become good friends, the miracles of the Internet !!!

[Astronimo]

Originally posted by Warbreaker:

Originally posted by I'm sick with two legs:

Sure.

OK, Sure, OK, Sure, good, I see you have become good friends, the miracles of the Internet !!!

Best friends forever!!!

[PancakeWizard]

Originally posted by Jessica♥:

After wrath... Right, yeah I went onto avarice after wrath. Ah I see, you can head to the church via a serpent hole.
I guess it just seems like there is a natural progression and the choice to go fight lust instead of following the progression seems more like a sequence break to me. It is surely a choice but it doesn't seem presented as a narrative choice. Oh well.
Essentially you have two paths then. Ok thanks for clearing that up for me 🙂

There is a natural progression choice, but there's an optional way to do it as well. I would say the latter is aimed at replay value.

I would hope in a future NG+ they just let you keep your hollows (without upgrades) and general level stats so then you can go after them in any order and no gatekeeping.

[darkmaiar]

I feel that I should clarify a bit more here. There definitely is a natural progression and it is certainly quite linear if you never deviate off of it. That being said, the nature of the game kind of implores you to deviate off of that path because so many areas become accessible if you backtrack after you've gained a new ability.

So, there are only two instances where two bosses have to be beat in a certain order and immediately one after the other. Those are [1] Envy to your first encounter with Wrath and [2] Pride to the Final Boss.

There are two other times where bosses have a required order but do not require that you beat them one after the other. Those are [1] Lust to Gluttony (because you need the Force Hollow from Lust to get to Gluttony) and [2] Gluttony to Wrath (because you need the Stasis Hollow from Gluttony to get to Wrath). Where people seem to get the wrong idea is that they kill Avarice and Sloth and then are left with those three bosses in order, therefore end up thinking that's the only order. But it's not.

Lust --> Gluttony --> Wrath HAS to happen, but it doesn't have to happen like that because Sloth and Avarice can be done at any time. All that's required for you to make the game nonlinear is that you know the areas, you know which bosses give what Hollows, and what Hollows get you to which bosses. Just thinking about it a little bit in my head, I can already think of at least 16 different orders (and I know there are more) you can fight Avarice, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, and Wrath in.

[Mazile]

On my run i got to Sloth, thought it's somekind of bullshittery and went exploring, got to Lust, killed them, returned to Sloth, killed him, decided to explore hollows, killed Avarice, then Gluttony and on the rails to the end