Criterion: Let us choose the Boss order

[Eisi]

Hey!

I would love to prog boss 3 but since it's gated behind having to do boss 1 and 2 first it's very difficult to find people for it that are at the same progression stage.

I think Criterion has the great opportunity to just let us choose the boss order so we can learn each of them independently. You broaden the possible entry points from 1 to 3, which provides a lot more variety and people don't need to already know most of the dungeon to prog one fight.

Then if we wanna clear we have to do all of them to get the reward.

I think this would make Criterion infinitely more fun and approachable and help distinguish it more from Savage raids. It would waste less time too.

[Jeeqbit]

Distinguish it? You can choose the last savage floor and skip the other 3.

[Eisi]

Distinguish it? You can choose the last savage floor and skip the other 3.

I view Criterion like one big Savage fight. You could break it up into exchangeable pieces unlike individual savage fights. It would be the same instance in which you choose one of three paths. Once the path's Boss is defeated you can proceed to either of the other two, rather than exiting the instance and queueing into a different instance altogether.

So like Criterion is already, but with an intro room with three portals and two portals after the first boss.

[Post]

Only trouble with splitting the bosses down different paths, if you want to call it trouble, is that it'd be like letting you practice the last part of a boss fight without clearing the earlier ones every pull, to some extent. Not saying they necessarily balance around that, but that may be a consideration of theirs when designing em.

But, since we're just kinda spitballing here, how about do some Megaman shit and have the boss' stages (trash and mechanics) change based on which ones you beat first.

[Eisi]

Only trouble with splitting the bosses down different paths, if you want to call it trouble, is that it'd be like letting you practice the last part of a boss fight without clearing the earlier ones every pull, to some extent. Not saying they necessarily balance around that, but that may be a consideration of theirs when designing em.

Exactly! I wouldn't call that trouble, but a great quality of life feature. I loved the boss Chaos from Omega 9 Savage, because that was a fight that randomly chose between two sets of possible elemental combinations and after the halfway point would execute the other one it didn't yet. So during prog you would automatically learn both phase 1 and phase 3 of the fight without even having gotten to 3 and when you got to it you already largely knew it. I loved that fight because of that variety.

Thematically choosing the order of bosses in Criterion would also be appropriate, since they are an evolution of Variant. Meaning that storywise there is no mandatory boss order either (with the exception of the Variant-exclusive secret boss, but that one doesn't appear in Criterion anyway).

But, since we're just kinda spitballing here, how about do some Megaman shit and have the boss' stages (trash and mechanics) change based on which ones you beat first.

This one requires additional design work and runs counter to my point of being able to learn the bosses in either order. With minor mechanics or trash I'm sure this could add some spice.