Do recovery rolls have to be in sequence?

Question

The Numenéra core rulebook says on page 94 that if you rest for the first time on a given day you can take an action to make your recovery roll, the second time you have to spend 10 mins to be able to make the recovery roll, the third time it's one hour, and finally you can make your fourth and last recovery roll for the day after 10 hours.

One of my players brought up the question of whether you are able to select which one of those rolls you make as your first recovery roll. Do you always need to follow the sequence (which does make sense and which I find logical) or could you save up your, say, "one action recovery" for later if you choose the 10 mins recover first after battle, for example? Is this mentioned somewhere?

Answer 1

The rules on page 94 specifically say "The first time you rest each day...", "The second time you rest each day..." and so on. This means you have to take the rests in that order.

Answer 2

Don't have the book where I can reach it at the moment, so I'll try to update this when I'm at home, but: Yes, you have to take your rests in sequence. This is spelled out (at least in the Cypher System Core Rules book, which I have) where it talks about taking multiple rests in immediate sequence (for instance, rolling all your recoveries in an overnight rest).

The apparent logic is that it takes longer to recover each increment than the previous (unless you have a descriptor- or focus-based option that, for instance, lets you take your ten minute rest as an action), because rest is less effective as you progress through a day's stress and exertions.