PC Mandatory Bosses
- Thread starter give1cam
- Start date
I think it is fine personally.
This may be a result of playing many JRPGs throughout my life, but a majority of them will have side quests that are not mandatory to beat the game's main story and final boss. These quests will sometimes involve bosses as well which the player has the option to completely skip. For people who want to just enjoy the main story, they have that option to get a full experience, and for those who want more to do, side quests exist for them and offer more items and bosses that way.
Terraria's overall progression got finalized with the addition of the Lunatic Cultist, Pillars, & Moon Lord with the 1.3 update back in 2015. The Moon Lord was designed to be the game's final boss, so it makes sense that new bosses after that would be optional to the game's progression. The end of the game has already been established, so new content naturally has to be put in-between the beginning and Moon Lord.
The Queen Slime, Empress of Light, and Deerclops don't have to be fought in order to win the game, but they can be faced if the player desires and they can get new items and weapons from them if they choose.
Strictly speaking from Pre-Hardmode, only Skeletron (to get the Cultists to appear after Golem) and Wall of Flesh are required for progression. One could skip the EoC and EoW/BoC, but it would practically be very difficult to get through Pre-Hardmode and early hardmode without access to demonite or molten weapons & armor. As a result, many people end up fighting both those bosses anyway. The Queen Bee has always been optional as well before the Deerclops got added. Then the 3 mech bosses, Plantera, Golem are the only bosses needed until the Lunatic Cultist. A player could fight the Cultist right away if they wanted to, but getting weapons from some of the game's other optional bosses can help make the fight and the pillar enemies easier.
The recent new bosses just give more content for the overall game and still help to expand the game while offering the choice for players.
This may be a result of playing many JRPGs throughout my life, but a majority of them will have side quests that are not mandatory to beat the game's main story and final boss. These quests will sometimes involve bosses as well which the player has the option to completely skip. For people who want to just enjoy the main story, they have that option to get a full experience, and for those who want more to do, side quests exist for them and offer more items and bosses that way.
Terraria's overall progression got finalized with the addition of the Lunatic Cultist, Pillars, & Moon Lord with the 1.3 update back in 2015. The Moon Lord was designed to be the game's final boss, so it makes sense that new bosses after that would be optional to the game's progression. The end of the game has already been established, so new content naturally has to be put in-between the beginning and Moon Lord.
The Queen Slime, Empress of Light, and Deerclops don't have to be fought in order to win the game, but they can be faced if the player desires and they can get new items and weapons from them if they choose.
Strictly speaking from Pre-Hardmode, only Skeletron (to get the Cultists to appear after Golem) and Wall of Flesh are required for progression. One could skip the EoC and EoW/BoC, but it would practically be very difficult to get through Pre-Hardmode and early hardmode without access to demonite or molten weapons & armor. As a result, many people end up fighting both those bosses anyway. The Queen Bee has always been optional as well before the Deerclops got added. Then the 3 mech bosses, Plantera, Golem are the only bosses needed until the Lunatic Cultist. A player could fight the Cultist right away if they wanted to, but getting weapons from some of the game's other optional bosses can help make the fight and the pillar enemies easier.
The recent new bosses just give more content for the overall game and still help to expand the game while offering the choice for players.
Adalicia
The Destroyer
I concur with Aurora3500, though I surmise we have similar taste in games, as I mainly play JRPGs as well.
I believe optional bosses are a fine concept, as it gives each individual player the ability to diversify each run, if they so choose; as well as allowing them to have a general "order" they typically fight them in.
I, myself, have a few bosses I almost invariably fight in specific orders, such as I fight queen slime before any of the mechanical bosses, or the queen bee before the wall of flesh.
As Terraria is such an open-ended computer game, as in, it is what you make of it, literally; having a lot of bosses in an inviolable progression line would reduce the replayability factor Terraria has, as it would remove many splendid "what if" questions, such as:
"Can I defeat the wall of flesh on the first day?"
I have never done this one, but I have defeated the lunatic cultist with nothing better than a clockwork assault rifle. Something that I likely would not have attempted if I had better weapons dropped by bosses that I mandatorily had to defeat to spawn the cultists.
The way Terraria stands currently gives player a great deal of freedom to do as they please, which allows them to be as creative as they wish. At least, this is my opinion on the subject.
I believe optional bosses are a fine concept, as it gives each individual player the ability to diversify each run, if they so choose; as well as allowing them to have a general "order" they typically fight them in.
I, myself, have a few bosses I almost invariably fight in specific orders, such as I fight queen slime before any of the mechanical bosses, or the queen bee before the wall of flesh.
As Terraria is such an open-ended computer game, as in, it is what you make of it, literally; having a lot of bosses in an inviolable progression line would reduce the replayability factor Terraria has, as it would remove many splendid "what if" questions, such as:
"Can I defeat the wall of flesh on the first day?"
I have never done this one, but I have defeated the lunatic cultist with nothing better than a clockwork assault rifle. Something that I likely would not have attempted if I had better weapons dropped by bosses that I mandatorily had to defeat to spawn the cultists.
The way Terraria stands currently gives player a great deal of freedom to do as they please, which allows them to be as creative as they wish. At least, this is my opinion on the subject.
Sigma90
Brain of Cthulhu
Strictly speaking, mandatory bosses are WoF, the three mech bosses, Plantera, Golem, Lunatic Cultist and Moon Lord.
Being more pragmatic with progression, the semi-mandatory bosses are also EoC, EoW/BoW and Skeletron (might be mandatory, see Aurora's comment above).
Optional bosses: KS, QB, Deerclops, QS, EoL and Fishron.
There are more strictly mandatory bosses than there are completely optional bosses.
That aside, Terraria's progression is difficult to modify. A hypothetical example: Once you defeat Plantera, you have to defeat EoL to get a key and unlock the temple. Adjustments like that don't really add much to the gameplay; it's just extending the boss runs. Trying to adjust the game in this manner would probably lead to backlash and personally I don't think it would add much value. Leaving many bosses as optional is the best of both worlds. Completionists and explorers get rewarded for going out of their way to fight more bosses. Those that want to speedrun or progress more quickly have the option of doing so too. There's no penalty for your chosen playstyle.
Being more pragmatic with progression, the semi-mandatory bosses are also EoC, EoW/BoW and Skeletron (might be mandatory, see Aurora's comment above).
Optional bosses: KS, QB, Deerclops, QS, EoL and Fishron.
There are more strictly mandatory bosses than there are completely optional bosses.
That aside, Terraria's progression is difficult to modify. A hypothetical example: Once you defeat Plantera, you have to defeat EoL to get a key and unlock the temple. Adjustments like that don't really add much to the gameplay; it's just extending the boss runs. Trying to adjust the game in this manner would probably lead to backlash and personally I don't think it would add much value. Leaving many bosses as optional is the best of both worlds. Completionists and explorers get rewarded for going out of their way to fight more bosses. Those that want to speedrun or progress more quickly have the option of doing so too. There's no penalty for your chosen playstyle.
![Toxophilite [East]](/data/avatars/m/166/166394.jpg?1584244058){kind=avatar}
Toxophilite [East]
Terrarian
Funnily enough, fighting for this "unique feature" all these years, has been made into a proven formula with the release of "Elden Ring". Talk about 'optional Bosses', the only other thing that comes close is probably Terraria's very-own design, in the sense that some can be totally skipped-over or forgotten about because of the large number of options you have (I told y'all this was a feature, not an oversight). 
If I recall correctly, yes, the only "mandatory Bosses" are indeed WoF, The Mechs, Plantera, Golem, Cultist and the "Space Tetrad" (7-9 Bosses). On the other hand, you have the totally optional Bosses, King Slime, EoC, EoW/ BoC, Skeletron, Deerclops, OOA Tiers 1-3, Queen Slime, EoL, Martian Saucer +crew, Flying Dutchman +crew, Pumpking +crew, Ice Queen +crew & Duke (15-19 optional Bosses).
TATQT: I've always felt good about this design choice, and have been patiently waiting for the formula to be 'proven', so I can stop arguing with other people about why something like this is valuable, being able to miss things in a video game is a feature. Now hopefully, people will stop asking for Sandstrom in a Bottle to be craftable... but, probably not!
If I recall correctly, yes, the only "mandatory Bosses" are indeed WoF, The Mechs, Plantera, Golem, Cultist and the "Space Tetrad" (7-9 Bosses). On the other hand, you have the totally optional Bosses, King Slime, EoC, EoW/ BoC, Skeletron, Deerclops, OOA Tiers 1-3, Queen Slime, EoL, Martian Saucer +crew, Flying Dutchman +crew, Pumpking +crew, Ice Queen +crew & Duke (15-19 optional Bosses).
TATQT: I've always felt good about this design choice, and have been patiently waiting for the formula to be 'proven', so I can stop arguing with other people about why something like this is valuable, being able to miss things in a video game is a feature. Now hopefully, people will stop asking for Sandstrom in a Bottle to be craftable... but, probably not!
Terrablitz
Terrarian
I think Skeletron is mandatory. The cultists won't spawn if the old man is there, I believe.