Must the layers of the Prismatic Wall spell be destroyed in order?

Question

Must the layers of the Prismatic Wall spell be destroyed in order?

You'd think this is answered read-as-written on page 269 of the 5e PHB:

The wall can be destroyed, also one layer at a time, in order from red to violet, by means specific to each layer.

However, I know I've seen multiple people around the internet talk about strategies of intentionally destroying certain layers of their own wall like the red, orange, or indigo layers, and holing up inside the wall and shooting or casting spells through the wall without those layers blocking them.

It also begs a question like "If a fireball hits the wall as part of battle and does 25 damage, does it destroy the blue layer individually?"

I just want some validation that you really do have to hack each layer down from red to violet as opposed to losing middle layers intentionally or unintentionally as part of the overall battle.

Answer 1

They must be destroyed in order

The spell states:

[...] The wall can be destroyed, also one layer at a time, in order from red to violet, by means specific to each layer [...]

The bolded section explicitly states that the layers must be destroyed in the order red --> violet. Compare this to the following text:

The wall can be destroyed, also one layer at a time, by means specific to each layer

This would mean that only one layer can be destroyed at a time in any order and they just have added "in order from red to violet" for some reason. It's quite clear that this phrase adds the condition that the red layer just be destroyed first and so forth with the violet layer being destroyed last.