No-hit runs successful games—a benignant of self-imposed situation wherever you instrumentality zero harm from enemies—are thing new, particularly for tough-as-nails titles similar Dark Souls. But Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Twitch streamer and YouTuber TheUrbanOrb has taken that feat to the extreme, and aft much than 3 years of practice, defeated each hostile successful FromSoftware’s ninja epic without taking a azygous hit. This includes hard foes similar Gyoubu Oniwa and Isshin The Sword Saint, arsenic good arsenic mini-bosses specified arsenic the Blazing Bull and plentifulness of the game’s mundane shmucks. It’s truly awesome and makes maine hella jealous.

TheUrbanOrb is simply a Soulsborne YouTuber whose completed situation runs see a level 1 Dark Souls tally connected New Game +7 with a ton of restrictions (like nary pyromancy oregon ranged combat) and a akin level 1 Demon’s Souls tally connected NG+7 with the Pure Black World Tendency turned on (a mechanic that increases the fig and trouble of the enemies crossed the game’s satellite portion offering adjacent much rewards). Runs similar these, and this latest no-damage Sekiro task, are thing TheUrbanOrb does to situation himself, pushing done punishing games with a clump of prerequisites to spot if helium has the fortitude to finish. It’s acquisition watching idiosyncratic with immense cognition of FromSoft’s games abide by definite conditions portion demonstrating exploits successful these epic gauntlets.

First announcing his intent to tackle this situation with a cinematic and emotive trailer successful February 2020, TheUrbanOrb has since posted a five-part video series of him beating Sekiro without taking a azygous deed from a azygous enemy. (The entire run was besides recorded connected his Twitch channel.) Taking implicit 3 years and much than 4,000 hours of practice, helium has yet slayed each of the game’s bosses, from Genichiro Ashina to the Great Shinobi Owl, and, yes, that adjacent includes the notorious, stupid-ass Guardian Ape. That pains me. Not due to the fact that helium busted retired immoderate flashy moves oregon thing to termination the white-furred gorilla, but due to the fact that helium simply employed a slower, much methodical strategy than Sekiro teaches comparatively aboriginal on. While I’m perpetually getting my ass kicked by playing excessively aggressively, and ne'er really minding my surroundings, TheUrbanOrb forced enemies to play astatine his pace, which gave him the advantage.

Slow And Steady Beats The Game

A slower crippled gives you clip to think, to measure the situation, and marque decisions based connected force enactment and positional awareness. TheUrbanOrb spent overmuch of the archetypal portion of the video series, for example, successful stealth, dodging enemies to get the driblet connected them without engaging successful multi-person fights. For astir normie combatants, stealth offered a one-hit kill. For each others with ample wellness pools, stealth attacks typically eliminated 1 full wellness bar, reducing the clip helium was locked successful combat.

When forced to fight, the YouTuber played beauteous reactively. He’d onslaught erstwhile and show the enemy’s movements earlier attempting different attack, oregon Goomba-stomped bosses to debar harm portion gathering up the posture metre for a sidesplitting blow. This hit-and-run strategy, making ample usage of buffs specified arsenic the consumable Yashariku’s Sugar (that temporarily boosts onslaught powerfulness portion cutting your beingness and posture bars successful half), made up the bulk of The UrbanOrb’s playstyle for this run. That’s not to accidental it ever worked out. TheUrbanOrb told Kotaku implicit email that immoderate enemies forced him to not conscionable restart the situation run, but besides rejigger his strategies to guarantee 100 percent effectiveness 100 percent of the time.

“Some of the strats were specifically made with the unit that I‘d expect astatine that portion successful mind,” TheUrbanOrb said. “For example, I recovered that sometimes I would beryllium truthful tense I couldn‘t bash good adjustments of the camera instrumentality anymore, truthful I ended up changing the strat altogether to marque it enactment without that good adjustment.”

So I went done aggregate specified strat iterations and adjacent went backmost to the drafting committee for immoderate bosses aggregate times until I yet got them to a level that would marque maine consciousness assured warring them successful a precocious unit situation. The astir humiliating enactment was ever erstwhile a “safe and accordant strat” turned retired not to be, forcing maine backmost yet again to the drafting board, which happened a batch successful this run. Most notably, I changed my Sword Saint strat 7 times successful full until I arrived astatine what is yet the really moving 100 percent harmless and accordant strat to me, utilizing thing that could beryllium considered an AI exploit that had not been discovered yet. That last strat was thing similar thing that I had done 2 oregon 3 years ago.

The last strategy helium utilized against Isshin The Sword Saint is really beauteous elemental successful execution. After realizing the aggregate strategies revolving astir “dodging his overhead slams and countering his follow-ups” didn’t work, due to the fact that of the rocks scattered astir the flowery and foggy arena, TheUrbanOrb recovered a weakness successful the last boss’s AI. He utilized the combat accomplishment Floating Passage—a five-hit combo onslaught TheUrbanOrb called “the astir unpopular and weakest” determination successful the game—and positioned the brag astir those annoying rocks.The exploit gave him abstraction to “deal with Isshin consistently and safely,” helium told Kotaku, arsenic good arsenic a protective obstruction to evade damage. All without engaging successful each Sekiro mechanic.

Sometimes, Mechanics Are Cumbersome

One happening that stood retired to maine erstwhile watching TheUrbanOrb’s bid was the unconventional mode successful which helium utilized Sekiro’s combat skills and crippled mechanics. He occasionally deflected force attacks, but chose to tally distant much often. He often toggled betwixt locking connected and disconnected foes successful battle. He opted for a slow-and-loose playstyle, rushing successful to onshore a swipe oregon two, past dipping retired earlier looking for different accidental to strike. He pounced similar a cat, which seemingly contradicts Sekiro’s much assertive design. FromSoft wants you successful your enemy’s look successful this game, exploiting their missteps, throwing them disconnected their balance, cutting them up. TheUrbanOrb played the opposite, dilatory whittling down wellness bars successful a bout of attrition, alternatively of an enactment of dominance. TheUrbanOrb said there’s a crushed wherefore helium regularly avoided deflections and didn’t employment each the tools astatine his disposal.

“You get successful immoderate benignant of occupation erstwhile you bash [deflections],” TheUrbanOrb said. “Either the hostile has a moveset that requires a drawstring of instant decisions nether pressure, which I don’t like, oregon there’s a occupation with the arena that leads to deflections not moving decently (like for Sword Saint).” He mentioned that you get much invincibility frames portion dodging if you’re not locked onto an force than if you are, astatine slightest erstwhile dodging sideways oregon diagonally, hence his inclination to toggle the lock-on diagnostic portion warring foes. “However,” helium said, “that comes astatine a cost: You person to power the camera somehow, and that tin beryllium tricky. That’s wherefore I often power betwixt being locked-off and locked-on during the aforesaid fight, similar with Owl.”

This is what I mean astir speedrunning being educational. I knew that dodging gave you a definite fig of invincibility frames (or i-frames, arsenic speedrunners often telephone them) to support you from an attack, but I didn’t cognize that dodging portion locked-off accrued the fig of invincibility frames, making the dodge adjacent much effective. Maybe present I tin bushed the brutal Guardian Ape, though I should astir apt enactment a batch much signifier successful earlier making that attempt. Got Elden Ring stuck successful my wrists.

Practice Makes Perfect

TheUrbanOrb enactment his clip successful and coiled up amended for it, saying that respective bosses forced him to survey for hours. He spent “between 350 and 400 hours” connected Isshin alone, for example, tweaking his strategies and analyzing the brag intimately to guarantee this situation tally would spell flawlessly. This refinement is thing he’s done with a fig of the game’s enemies, sometimes spending upwards of 2 weeks connected a azygous brag to envision each the worst-case scenarios and hole for erstwhile things didn’t spell arsenic planned.

“Many of the ‘safe and consistent’ strategies of 2 years agone would go wholly obsolete aboriginal due to the fact that backmost then, I couldn‘t perchance person known galore of the things that I lone learned aft compounding galore small details from each antithetic aspects of the game,” helium said. “That to maine was the astir rewarding happening successful this run: Taking cognition from 1 portion of the tally and attempting to use it determination else, lone to observe thing caller which, portion unrelated to what I primitively wanted to achieve, I could past effort to use elsewhere, which would past pb maine to gully different transportation and marque different find and truthful on.”

It was this process of experimentation and discovery, helium said, with 1 happening feeding into different into another, that enabled him to finally, painstakingly get astatine what helium called “100% effectiveness. And I consciousness similar this is an acquisition and a skillset that is precise adjuvant to person erstwhile navigating challenging lives successful troubling times.”

For The Love Of FromSoft

The happening that draws maine to FromSoft games is not the punishing difficulty. I person yet to really decorativeness a Soulsborne crippled due to the fact that of however hard they are. Nah, the lure of FromSoft games for maine is the assemblage and the emotion they each stock for the developer’s work. There’s an appreciation and respect for what FromSoft does, and that adoration was the impetus for TheUrbanOrb’s run.

“I had a tendency to pass to FromSoftware that I admit their enactment and I profoundly respect each idiosyncratic who works there,” TheUrbanOrb said. “I americium grateful for the creator imaginativeness they person brought to beingness successful each the different games that came earlier Sekiro, and I cherish the assemblage these games person brought about.”

FromSoft’s games besides proceed to beryllium a metaphor for “learning however to woody with adversity,” arsenic TheUrbanOrb enactment it. It’s different crushed wherefore helium embarked connected specified a hard task. He wanted to situation himself, to spot if helium could memorize the methods helium came up with and enactment them to the trial nether existent pressure. These games are a benignant of beingness acquisition successful tackling the challenges of mundane experiences, TheUrbanOrb told us, and thing helium apt won’t forget.

Now that his all-enemies no-hit tally of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is completed, TheUrbanOrb tin yet instrumentality a load off.

“As to what’s adjacent for me, I americium not sure,” helium said. “I really waited to play Elden Ring until I finished this situation due to the fact that I didn’t privation to confuse my musculus representation and my representation of accusation that I needed for the Sekiro run. I’m truly looking guardant to yet experiencing it. As for different challenges oregon runs, I’m not definite determination either. Honestly, the past three-and-a-half years took a toll connected me, and I’ll person to marque definite to retrieve from that first.”

Yeah, I ideate TheUrbanOrb would request a good, agelong interruption aft this. I couldn’t fathom dedicating truthful overmuch clip to accomplishing specified a feat, but arsenic helium said, 1 of the biggest motivators was the radical who didn’t judge helium could bash it. He wanted to beryllium them wrong. I deliberation we tin safely accidental he’s done that.