No-hit runs in video games—a sort of self-imposed problem the place you’re taking zero harm from enemies—are nothing new, particularly for tough-as-nails titles like Darkish Souls. However Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice YouTuber TheUrbanOrb has taken that feat to the acute, and after greater than three years of apply, defeated each opponent in FromSoftware’s ninja epic with out taking a single hit. This consists of arduous foes like Gyoubu Oniwa and Isshin The Sword Saint, in addition to mini-bosses such because the Blazing Bull and loads of the sport’s on a regular basis shmucks. It’s actually spectacular and makes me hella jealous.
TheUrbanOrb is a Soulsborne YouTuber whose accomplished problem runs embrace a stage one Darkish Souls run on New Recreation +7 with a ton of restrictions (like no pyromancy or ranged fight) and the same stage one Demon’s Souls run on NG+7 with the Pure Black World Tendency turned on (a mechanic that will increase the quantity and problem of the enemies throughout the sport’s world whereas providing much more rewards). Runs like these, and this newest no-damage Sekiro job, are one thing TheUrbanOrb does to problem himself, pushing by means of punishing video games with a bunch of stipulations to see if he has the fortitude to complete. It’s academic watching somebody with huge data of FromSoft’s video games abide by sure situations whereas demonstrating exploits in these epic gauntlets.
First asserting his intent to sort out this problem with a cinematic and emotive trailer in February 2020, TheUrbanOrb has since posted a five-part video collection of him beating Sekiro with out taking a single hit from a single enemy. Taking up three years and greater than 4,000 hours of apply, he has lastly slayed all the recreation’s bosses, from Genichiro Ashina to the Nice Shinobi Owl, and, sure, that even consists of the infamous, stupid-ass Guardian Ape. That pains me. Not as a result of he busted out any flashy strikes or something to kill the white-furred gorilla, however as a result of he merely employed a slower, extra methodical technique than Sekiro teaches comparatively early on. Whereas I’m consistently getting my ass kicked by enjoying too aggressively, and by no means actually minding my environment, TheUrbanOrb compelled enemies to play at his tempo, which gave him the benefit.
Sluggish And Regular Beats The Recreation
A slower recreation provides you time to assume, to evaluate the scenario, and make selections primarily based on enemy exercise and positional consciousness. TheUrbanOrb spent a lot of the primary a part of the video collection, for instance, in stealth, dodging enemies to get the drop on them with out partaking in multi-person fights. For many normie combatants, stealth supplied a one-hit kill. For all others with massive well being swimming pools, stealth assaults usually eradicated one total well being bar, decreasing the time he was locked in fight.
When compelled to combat, the YouTuber performed fairly reactively. He’d assault as soon as and monitor the enemy’s actions earlier than trying one other assault, or Goomba-stomped bosses to keep away from harm whereas build up the posture meter for a killing blow. This hit-and-run technique, making ample use of buffs comparable to the consumable Yashariku’s Sugar (that briefly boosts assault energy whereas slicing your life and posture bars in half), made up the majority of The UrbanOrb’s playstyle for this run. That’s to not say it all the time labored out. TheUrbanOrb informed Kotaku over e mail that some enemies compelled him to not simply restart the problem run, but additionally rejigger his methods to make sure 100% effectiveness 100% of the time.
“A number of the strats had been particularly made with the strain that I‘d anticipate at that half in thoughts,” TheUrbanOrb stated. “For instance, I discovered that typically I might be so nervous I couldn‘t do superb changes of the digicam stick anymore, so I ended up altering the strat altogether to make it work with out that superb adjustment.”
So I went by means of a number of such strat iterations and even went again to the drafting board for some bosses a number of instances till I lastly acquired them to a stage that might make me really feel assured combating them in a excessive strain scenario. Essentially the most humiliating work was all the time when a “protected and constant strat” turned out to not be, forcing me again but once more to the drafting board, which occurred lots on this run. Most notably, I modified my Sword Saint strat seven instances in whole till I arrived at what’s lastly the truly working 100% protected and constant strat to me, utilizing one thing that might be thought-about an AI exploit that had not been found but. That ultimate strat was nothing like something that I had achieved two or three years in the past.
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The ultimate technique he used in opposition to Isshin The Sword Saint is definitely fairly easy in execution. After realizing the a number of methods revolving round “dodging his overhead slams and countering his follow-ups” didn’t work, due to the rocks scattered across the flowery and foggy enviornment, TheUrbanOrb discovered a weak point within the ultimate boss’s AI. He used the fight ability Floating Passage—a five-hit combo assault TheUrbanOrb known as “essentially the most unpopular and weakest” transfer within the recreation—and positioned the boss round these annoying rocks.The exploit gave him area to “take care of Isshin constantly and safely,” he informed Kotaku, in addition to a protecting barrier to evade harm. All with out partaking in each Sekiro mechanic.
Typically, Mechanics Are Cumbersome
One factor that stood out to me when watching TheUrbanOrb’s collection was the unconventional means by which he used Sekiro’s fight abilities and recreation mechanics. He sometimes deflected enemy assaults, however selected to run away extra typically. He ceaselessly toggled between locking on and off foes in battle. He opted for a slow-and-loose playstyle, speeding in to land a swipe or two, then dipping out earlier than in search of one other likelihood to strike. He pounced like a cat, which seemingly contradicts Sekiro’s extra aggressive design. FromSoft desires you in your enemy’s face on this recreation, exploiting their missteps, throwing them off their steadiness, slicing them up. TheUrbanOrb performed the alternative, slowly whittling down well being bars in a bout of attrition, as an alternative of an act of dominance. TheUrbanOrb stated there’s a cause why he usually averted deflections and didn’t make use of all of the instruments at his disposal.
“You get in some sort of bother if you do [deflections],” TheUrbanOrb stated. “Both the opponent has a moveset that requires a string of immediate selections beneath strain, which I don’t like, or there’s an issue with the sector that results in deflections not working correctly (like for Sword Saint).” He talked about that you simply get extra invincibility frames whereas dodging in case you’re not locked onto an enemy than if you’re, at the least when dodging sideways or diagonally, therefore his tendency to toggle the lock-on characteristic whereas combating foes. “Nonetheless,” he stated, “that comes at a price: You need to management the digicam someway, and that may be difficult. That’s why I typically change between being locked-off and locked-on throughout the identical combat, like with Owl.”
That is what I imply about speedrunning being academic. I knew that dodging gave you a sure variety of invincibility frames (or i-frames, as speedrunners typically name them) to guard you from an assault, however I didn’t know that dodging whereas locked-off elevated the variety of invincibility frames, making the dodge much more efficient. Perhaps now I can beat the brutal Guardian Ape, although I ought to most likely put much more apply in earlier than making that try. Obtained Elden Ring caught in my wrists.
Apply Makes Excellent
TheUrbanOrb put his time in and wound up higher for it, saying that a number of bosses compelled him to review for hours. He spent “between 350 and 400 hours” on Isshin alone, for instance, tweaking his methods and analyzing the boss carefully to make sure this problem run would go flawlessly. This refinement is one thing he’s achieved with a lot of the sport’s enemies, typically spending upwards of two weeks on a single boss to examine all of the worst-case situations and put together for when issues didn’t go as deliberate.
“Most of the ‘protected and constant’ methods of two years in the past would turn out to be utterly out of date later as a result of again then, I couldn‘t presumably have recognized lots of the issues that I solely realized after compounding many little particulars from all totally different facets of the sport,” he stated. “That to me was essentially the most rewarding factor on this run: Taking data from one a part of the run and trying to use it some place else, solely to find one thing new which, whereas unrelated to what I initially needed to attain, I might then attempt to apply elsewhere, which might then lead me to attract one other connection and make one other discovery and so forth.”
It was this means of experimentation and discovery, he stated, with one factor feeding into one other into one other, that enabled him to lastly, painstakingly arrive at what he known as “100% effectiveness. And I really feel like that is an expertise and a skillset that could be very useful to have when navigating difficult lives in troubling instances.”
For The Love Of FromSoft
The factor that attracts me to FromSoft video games is just not the punishing problem. I’ve but to really end a Soulsborne recreation due to how arduous they’re. Nah, the lure of FromSoft video games for me is the group and the love all of them share 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 need to speak to FromSoftware that I respect their work and I deeply respect each one who works there,” TheUrbanOrb stated. “I’m grateful for the inventive imaginative and prescient they’ve delivered to life in all the opposite video games that got here earlier than Sekiro, and I cherish the group these video games have led to.”
FromSoft’s video games additionally proceed to be a metaphor for “studying the right way to take care of adversity,” as TheUrbanOrb put it. It’s one more reason why he launched into such a tough job. He needed to problem himself, to see if he might memorize the strategies he got here up with and put them to the check beneath actual strain. These video games are a sort of life lesson in tackling the challenges of on a regular basis experiences, TheUrbanOrb informed us, and one thing he doubtless received’t overlook.
Now that his all-enemies no-hit run of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is accomplished, TheUrbanOrb can lastly take a load off.
“As to what’s subsequent for me, I’m not certain,” he stated. “I truly waited to play Elden Ring till I completed this problem as a result of I didn’t need to confuse my muscle reminiscence and my reminiscence of data that I wanted for the Sekiro run. I’m actually wanting ahead to lastly experiencing it. As for different challenges or runs, I’m undecided there both. Actually, the final three-and-a-half years took a toll on me, and I’ll have to ensure to recuperate from that first.”
Yeah, I think about TheUrbanOrb would wish a superb, lengthy break after this. I couldn’t fathom dedicating a lot time to undertaking such a feat, however as he stated, one of many largest motivators was the individuals who didn’t consider he might do it. He needed to show them mistaken. I feel we are able to safely say he’s achieved that.