How this guide works: it's built on the full GamesRadar+ area-by-area walkthrough (read in its entirety for the route, the puzzles and the collectible logic), cross-checked against the official Steam page for the facts and the art, and against the Fallen Order Wiki and Gamer Guides for the things those sources nail down better — chiefly the boss names, which most route guides skip. Fallen Order is a Metroidvania: backtracking, ability gates and tough duels. So rather than copy a turn-left-here transcript, this is an understanding-first guide — the shape of the game, the order to travel, every named boss and how to beat it, and what's actually worth collecting. The ending section is flagged as spoilers.
What is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order?
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a third-person action-adventure from Respawn Entertainment, published by Electronic Arts and released on November 15, 2019. You play Cal Kestis, a former Padawan in hiding five years after Order 66, who is pulled back into the fight when the Empire's Inquisitors discover he survived. With his droid BD-1 on his back and the crew of the ship Stinger Mantis — the ex-Jedi Cere and the pilot Greez — Cal sets out to rebuild what the Empire is trying to erase.
Mechanically it borrows openly from two genres. From Metroidvania games it takes interconnected maps that slowly open up as you gain new powers, so you constantly revisit earlier planets. From Soulslike games it takes parry-centric combat, Meditation Points that act as bonfires (rest to heal and level up, but every enemy respawns), and a sting when you die — you drop your XP progress and must land a hit on whatever killed you to win it back. Knowing that DNA up front is the single most useful thing for a new player: this is a game of patience, exploration and timing, not button-mashing.
How the game is built: the planet loop and ability gates
Everything in Fallen Order revolves around the Stinger Mantis. The ship is your hub: a Meditation Point to level up, a workbench to customise your lightsaber, a terrarium for plant collectibles, and a holographic star map where you pick your next world. You don't roam the galaxy freely — the story unlocks planets one at a time, and you fly back and forth between a handful of them.
The genius (and the occasional frustration) is the ability gating. You will constantly see a wall you can't climb, a cable you can't power, a door you can't slice, a gap you can't double-jump. That is not a dead end — it's a note to self. The game expects you to come back once you've earned the right tool. The whole campaign is a loop of: fly to a planet → learn a new Force power or BD-1 upgrade → that power opens shortcuts back here AND on every planet you've already visited.
Here is the actual travel order the story walks you through, which is the backbone of the rest of this guide:
- Bracca — prologue / tutorial.
- Bogano — first hub world; learn Wall Run.
- Zeffo → the Tomb of Eilram; learn Force Push.
- Kashyyyk — get BD-1's Overcharge.
- Zeffo (return) → the Tomb of Miktrull; learn Force Pull.
- Kashyyyk (return) — the Origin Tree; get Jedi Flip (double jump) and the rebreather.
- Dathomir — get the Climbing Claws.
- Ilum — build your own lightsaber (the split-saber).
- Dathomir (final) — collect the Astrium.
- Bogano (return) — open the Ancient Vault.
- Nur / Fortress Inquisitorius — the finale (point of no return).
Combat fundamentals: parry first, everything else second
If you internalise one thing about fighting, make it this: Fallen Order is a parrying game. Blocking at the last instant deflects an attack and builds the enemy's stagger; a well-timed parry on a humanoid opens them up for a big hit or an instant finish. Mashing attack into a guarding enemy just gets you punished. Watch the enemy, deflect, then strike.
Two colour cues run the whole combat system:
- Red flash = unblockable. You cannot parry it — you must dodge or roll. Trying to block a red attack eats the full hit.
- Everything else can be parried with timing, or blocked (which chips your stamina) if you're not confident.
Your toolkit beyond the saber: deflecting blaster bolts back at troopers (hold block against ranged fire; the double-bladed stance helps against heavy/rapid fire), Force Slow to freeze a dangerous enemy or projectile, Force Push/Pull to knock enemies off ledges or yank them into hazards, and dodge/evade to reset. Spend skill points at Meditation Points across the three trees — Lightsaber, Force, Survival — on things you'll actually use early: Lightsaber Throw, dodge upgrades, the Push/Pull enhancements, and Stim/health boosts.
One thing that surprises people: difficulty doesn't make enemies tankier. Fallen Order's four modes — Story, Jedi Knight, Jedi Master, Grand Master — change three sliders instead: your parry window (tighter on harder modes), incoming damage (higher), and enemy aggression (higher). So combat always feels powerful; harder just means you must parry cleanly and you get swarmed. Jedi Knight is the recommended first-timer setting; Jedi Master if you enjoy Soulslike melee. You can change it any time from the menu.
Watch: combat tips that carry every difficulty
The Force powers and BD-1 upgrades, in the order you get them
Because the map is gated by abilities, this ordered list is effectively your progress bar. Each power both expands combat and unlocks traversal back through earlier planets.
- Force Slow — your first power, from the Bracca prologue. Slows enemies and machinery; you'll use it on spinning fans, turbines and pistons constantly.
- Wall Run — learned on Bogano (a flashback). Run horizontally across marked walls; the foundation of most platforming.
- Force Push — learned in the Tomb of Eilram on Zeffo. Knock enemies back/off ledges, smash weak walls, and solve the ball puzzle.
- Force Pull — learned in the Tomb of Miktrull on Zeffo's return trip. Yank enemies, ropes, and objects toward you; the other half of every physics puzzle.
- Jedi Flip (double jump) — from the Origin Tree on Kashyyyk's return. Suddenly a huge number of “just out of reach” ledges open up.
- Climbing Claws — from Dathomir (off a corpse after the Gorgara fight). Lets you scale the red fire-lichen walls scattered across every world — a big backtracking unlock.
- Split-saber (double-bladed) — you build your own lightsaber on Ilum. A separate early double-bladed unlock is also available on Dathomir if you detour at the start (see below).
And BD-1's upgrades, which gate just as much as your Force powers:
- Scomp Link (Zeffo) — opens locked “Scomp” doors and chests. Suddenly all those locked crates become reachable.
- Overcharge (Kashyyyk) — powers machines on and off: ziplines, drills, rotating bridges, forcefields.
- Slice Security Droid / Slice Probe Droid — turn stunned droids friendly to fight for you.
- Powered Zipline (Imperial Dig Site, Zeffo) — ride ziplines uphill, not just down.
Planet-by-planet: a director's tour
This is the route at altitude — each world's goal, the power you leave with, the boss, and what's worth grabbing. For every single hotspot and chest, a full transcript guide is exhaustive; here you get the map of the map.
Bracca — the prologue
A linear tutorial through a ship-breaking world. Follow your friend Prauf, learn to climb, slide and wall-run on rails, then fight through a train to learn the saber basics and Force Slow. The chapter ends with an unwinnable brush with the Second Sister — don't panic, just practise blocking until the Mantis rescues you. You're then introduced to the ship and fly to Bogano.
Bogano — the first hub
Goal: reach the Jedi temple / Ancient Vault (which you can't actually open until the very end — remember it). You leave with: Wall Run. Bogano is a gentle open hub to learn exploration and meet BD-1. Scan the painting that unlocks Dathomir as a destination, and note the optional Legendary Beast here — the frog-like Oggdo Bogdo — which is a famous early skill-check. It's fine to leave it; come back much stronger. Many crates and Force Essences here are gated behind powers you don't have yet, so don't obsess over 100% on the first pass.
Should you detour to Dathomir early?
After Bogano the map offers Zeffo (where the story wants you) and Dathomir. Dathomir is too tough to finish at low level, but you can push in just far enough to unlock a double-bladed lightsaber early — a genuinely nice quality-of-life pickup for the deflect-heavy fights ahead. If you don't care, skip it; you build a far better saber on Ilum later anyway. Go to Zeffo to advance the plot.
Zeffo & the Tomb of Eilram
Goal: investigate the ancient tombs Eno Cordova pointed you to. You leave with: Force Push (taught inside the Tomb of Eilram), the Scomp Link for BD-1 (gettable in the Weathered Monument statue), and a route to Kashyyyk. The tomb is the first big puzzle dungeon — the ball puzzle (more on it below). To leave the planet you fight an AT-ST walker.
Kashyyyk (first visit)
Goal: help the Wookiee resistance and find a way toward the Origin Tree. You leave with: BD-1's Overcharge. It opens with a loud on-rails set piece (commandeer an AT-AT, blast Imperial transports), then settles into the Imperial Refinery where Overcharge lets you power drills, ziplines and rotating platforms. You meet Saw Gerrera. When you're done, the story sends you back to Zeffo.
Zeffo (return) — Crash Site & the Tomb of Miktrull
Goal: reach the Imperial Dig Site; explore the new areas your fresh powers open. You leave with: Force Pull (taught in the Tomb of Miktrull) and BD-1's Powered Zipline. This is a dense return trip: the Crash Site (home to the Legendary Beast Rabid Jotaz), an unwinnable Second Sister beat, and then the big mid-game twist — you're ambushed and captured by the Haxion Brood bounty hunters and must escape a prison and a combat arena. From then on, random bounty-hunter ambushes can interrupt you anywhere, so stay alert. The Tomb of Miktrull is the second puzzle dungeon (the lantern puzzle, below).
Kashyyyk (return) — the Origin Tree
Goal: climb the Origin Tree. You leave with: Jedi Flip (double jump) and the rebreather (from Tarfful), which lets you swim and dive — opening underwater crates all over the game. Boss: the Ninth Sister, a hulking Dowutin Inquisitor. The climb itself is a showcase of jump pads, wall runs and the new double jump.
Dathomir (full run)
Goal: fight up through the Nightbrother villages toward the temple. You leave with: the Climbing Claws — pulled off a corpse after a dramatic two-stage fight with the giant bat, the Gorgara. The cloaked figure you keep meeting, Taron Malicos, is set up here but resolved on your final visit. Dathomir is hostile and atmospheric; Night Sisters and archers hit hard, and the unblockable arrows must be dodged, not blocked.
Ilum — build your lightsaber
Goal: retrieve a kyber crystal and forge your own weapon. You leave with: your personal split-saber (you choose the colour, changeable later). The centrepiece is an elegant ice / light-refraction puzzle: pull a crystal into a beam of light to melt frozen doors, repositioning the arm and ropes so the beam reaches the right ice. Two AT-STs guard the exit.
Dathomir (final) & back to Bogano
Goal: return to the Dathomir temple, beat Taron Malicos, and claim the Astrium. Then fly to Bogano and finally open the Ancient Vault with it. That triggers a vision, one more unwinnable Second Sister beat, and unlocks the last destination. Tidy up collectibles now if you want — the world stays open after the credits, but the finale itself does not.
The two signature puzzles, explained
Tomb of Eilram — the ball puzzle
You raise platforms by rolling giant metal balls into podiums, using wind vents plus Force Push. The reliable method: use a wind vent to carry a ball most of the way, then Push it the final stretch into the podium — pure Push alone is fiddly. The trickiest step has you Push a ball onto a wind loop and then time a Push to slot it into the podium as it passes. Take it slow; nothing here is on a timer except the loop itself. This dungeon is also where you learn Force Push, so the second half opens up once you have it.
Tomb of Miktrull — the lantern (magnet) puzzle
Here you use magnet pedestals plus Force Pull and Force Push to fling lit flame lanterns at red roots, burning them away to clear climbable walls and crates, and to drag magnetic blocks into place as stairs. The gotcha that traps everyone: water puts the lantern out. When a path crosses water, don't carry the lantern through it — route it through the air using a magnetic field to keep the flame alive, then Pull/Push it to the roots from dry ground. This dungeon is where you learn Force Pull.
Every boss, and how to beat it
Most route guides don't even name these. Here they are, with the core of each fight. The golden rule applies to all the humanoids: parry the white attacks, dodge the red ones, punish the recovery.
- Second Sister — Trilla Suduri. Cere's former Padawan turned Inquisitor, with a double-bladed spinning saber. She appears as scripted, unwinnable encounters several times (Bracca, the Zeffo Dig Site, the Bogano vault) — in those, just survive and deal what damage you can. The real duel comes at the Fortress: parry her quick spin combos, dodge her red-flash lunges and grabs, and punish in the gaps between strings.
- AT-ST (Zeffo). The cleanest kill is to Force Push its rocket back the instant it fires — huge damage. Otherwise deflect its bolts (double-bladed handles the fire rate), or Force Slow in to slash its legs while dodging the mines it drops.
- Ninth Sister (Kashyyyk). A massive Dowutin Inquisitor — slow, heavy, and well telegraphed. Dodge her unblockable overheads and ground slams (the red attacks), parry the rest, and punish after her big swings whiff.
- Gorgara (Dathomir). The giant bat. A multi-phase fight: switch your target between its body and wings, and when it glows/turns blue, Force-Pull it to the ground to open it up. It ends in a climbing chase / free-fall finisher — follow the prompts and dodge falling debris.
- Taron Malicos (Dathomir, final visit). A fallen Jedi with a split saber who also hurls rocks and debris with the Force — one of the hardest fights in the game. Stay patient, parry tight, dodge the unblockables and the thrown objects, and don't get greedy chasing damage.
- Legendary Beasts (optional ×4): Oggdo Bogdo (Bogano), Albino Wyyyschokk (Kashyyyk, a giant white spider), Rabid Jotaz (Zeffo Crash Site) and Nydak Alpha (Dathomir). All are dodge-and-punish creatures with a one-shot move to respect; beating all four is tied to an achievement/trophy.
Collectibles, and the smart way to chase them
Fallen Order has a lot to find, but only some of it matters for power. Here's what each type actually does:
- Chests = cosmetics only. Lightsaber parts and colours, BD-1 skins, Ponchos, outfit materials, Mantis paint jobs. Zero stat impact — collect them for the look, not for strength.
- Force Echoes — lore pickups that grant a little XP and fill your Databank. Nice for story; not essential.
- Stim Upgrades (orange/yellow crates) — +1 BD-1 Stim charge, i.e. one more heal. These are the most valuable practical pickups.
- Life Essence — a permanent boost to max Health.
- Force Essence — a permanent boost to your max Force meter.
- Terrarium Seeds — scan plants to grow them in the Mantis terrarium; a collection meta with a tidy payoff.
The honest strategy on backtracking: don't fight the map. Grab what's on your path, note the gated stuff in passing, and do a focused clean-up sweep late, once you have every power (Climbing Claws, Force Pull, Jedi Flip and the rebreather between them unlock almost everything). The world stays open after the credits — only the Fortress finale is one-way — so there's no rush to 100% before the ending.
The finale — spoilers ahead
Skip this section if you don't want the ending.
Opening the Bogano vault sets up the last destination: Nur, and the underwater Fortress Inquisitorius. This is a point of no return — a self-contained gauntlet you cannot revisit once finished, so do your collectible clean-up before you fly here. Inside it's a series of combat tunnels: power a generator, flood a corridor to get past a burning pipe, then fight escalating waves of every Imperial enemy type through the Inner Fortress, Prison Block and Citadel.
The finale delivers two big confrontations. First the real duel with the Second Sister, Trilla Suduri — the fight the whole game has been teasing. Then a famous sequence with Darth Vader that is not a winnable boss fight: it's a survival/escape set-piece, so don't try to out-duel him — run and use the environment as the game directs. After the credits you're returned to the Mantis with the galaxy still open for anything you left at less than 100%.
Frequently asked questions
How long is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order?
Roughly 16–20 hours for the main story, and around 25–30+ hours if you explore thoroughly and chase collectibles, depending on difficulty and how much you backtrack.
What difficulty should I play on?
Jedi Knight for most first-timers — it's the standard, balanced setting. Pick Jedi Master if you enjoy precise, Soulslike melee. Remember difficulty changes your parry window, incoming damage and enemy aggression — not enemy health — and you can change it any time.
Should I go to Zeffo or Dathomir first?
Zeffo — that's where the story leads. Dathomir is too tough early, but you can make a short detour there to grab a double-bladed lightsaber ahead of schedule if you like. Either way you'll return to Dathomir properly much later.
Do I have to backtrack?
Yes — it's a Metroidvania, so revisiting earlier planets with new powers is the core loop. For collectibles, the efficient approach is to sweep late, once you have Force Pull, Jedi Flip, the rebreather and the Climbing Claws, which together open almost everything.
Can you beat Darth Vader?
No — the Vader encounter is a scripted survival sequence, not a boss you defeat. Focus on escaping and using the environment rather than trading blows.
Are chests worth collecting?
Only for looks. Chests are purely cosmetic (saber parts, colours, skins, ponchos, paint jobs). The pickups that make you stronger are Stim Upgrades, Life Essence and Force Essence.
What carries into Star Wars Jedi: Survivor?
Nothing mechanical transfers, but finishing Fallen Order sets up Cal's story for the sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Playing the first is the best way into the second.
Sources & credits: route, puzzles and collectible logic cross-referenced from the GamesRadar+ Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order walkthrough; official details and screenshots from the Steam store page; boss names and the difficulty/ability specifics verified against the Fallen Order Wiki and Gamer Guides. Want a longer combat masterclass? See The Triple S League's “Jedi: Fallen Order Combat Guide: 22 Tips, Tricks & Strategies.” For more game walkthroughs and puzzle guides, browse 9puz.com.