And so they stated it couldn’t be executed…Screenshot: FromSoftware
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 Twitch streamer and YouTuber TheUrbanOrb has taken that feat to the intense, and after greater than three years of apply, defeated each opponent in FromSoftware’s ninja epic with out taking a single hit. This contains onerous 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 embody a stage one Darkish Souls run on New Recreation +7 with a ton of restrictions (like no pyromancy or ranged fight) and an analogous 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 issue 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 way of punishing video games with a bunch of conditions 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 saying 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. (The whole run was additionally recorded on his Twitch channel.) 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 contains 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 continuously getting my ass kicked by taking part in too aggressively, and by no means actually minding my environment, TheUrbanOrb compelled enemies to play at his tempo, which gave him the benefit.
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Gradual And Regular Beats The Recreation
A slower recreation offers you time to suppose, to evaluate the state of affairs, and make choices 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 participating in multi-person fights. For many normie combatants, stealth provided a one-hit kill. For all others with giant well being swimming pools, stealth assaults sometimes eradicated one whole 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 increase the posture meter for a killing blow. This hit-and-run technique, making ample use of buffs equivalent to the consumable Yashariku’s Sugar (that briefly boosts assault energy whereas reducing 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 instructed Kotaku over e-mail that some enemies compelled him to not simply restart the problem run, but in addition rejigger his methods to make sure 100 p.c effectiveness 100 p.c of the time.
“A number of the strats had been particularly made with the stress 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 advantageous changes of the digital camera stick anymore, so I ended up altering the strat altogether to make it work with out that advantageous adjustment.”
So I went by way 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 bought them to a stage that may make me really feel assured combating them in a excessive stress state of affairs. Probably the most humiliating work was all the time when a “secure and constant strat” turned out to not be, forcing me again but once more to the drafting board, which occurred loads on this run. Most notably, I modified my Sword Saint strat seven instances in whole till I arrived at what’s lastly the really working 100 p.c secure and constant strat to me, utilizing one thing that may very well be thought of an AI exploit that had not been found but. That last strat was nothing like something that I had executed two or three years in the past.
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The ultimate technique he used towards 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 spot within the last boss’s AI. He used the fight talent Floating Passage—a five-hit combo assault TheUrbanOrb referred to as “probably 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 instructed Kotaku, in addition to a protecting barrier to evade harm. All with out participating in each Sekiro mechanic.
Typically, Mechanics Are Cumbersome
One factor that stood out to me when watching TheUrbanOrb’s collection was the unconventional method by which he used Sekiro’s fight abilities and recreation mechanics. He often deflected enemy assaults, however selected to run away extra usually. He incessantly 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 searching for one other likelihood to strike. He pounced like a cat, which seemingly contradicts Sekiro’s extra aggressive design. FromSoft needs you in your enemy’s face on this recreation, exploiting their missteps, throwing them off their steadiness, reducing them up. TheUrbanOrb performed the other, 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 recurrently averted deflections and didn’t make use of all of the instruments at his disposal.
“You get in some sort of bother once you do [deflections],” TheUrbanOrb stated. “Both the opponent has a moveset that requires a string of prompt choices underneath stress, which I don’t like, or there’s an issue with the world that results in deflections not working correctly (like for Sword Saint).” He talked about that you simply get extra invincibility frames whereas dodging when you’re not locked onto an enemy than in case you are, no less than when dodging sideways or diagonally, therefore his tendency to toggle the lock-on function whereas combating foes. “Nevertheless,” he stated, “that comes at a value: It’s a must to management the digital camera one way or the other, and that may be tough. That’s why I usually swap 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 usually 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. Received Elden Ring caught in my wrists.
Observe Makes Good
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 executed with a lot of the sport’s enemies, typically spending upwards of two weeks on a single boss to ascertain all of the worst-case eventualities and put together for when issues didn’t go as deliberate.
“Most of the ‘secure and constant’ methods of two years in the past would turn out to be fully out of date later as a result of again then, I couldn‘t probably have recognized lots of the issues that I solely discovered after compounding many little particulars from all completely different elements of the sport,” he stated. “That to me was probably the most rewarding factor on this run: Taking data from one a part of the run and trying to use it someplace else, solely to find one thing new which, whereas unrelated to what I initially wished 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 technique 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 referred to as “100% effectiveness. And I really feel like that is an expertise and a skillset that may be very useful to have when navigating difficult lives in troubling instances.”
For The Love Of FromSoft
The factor that pulls me to FromSoft video games isn’t the punishing issue. I’ve but to really end a Soulsborne recreation due to how onerous 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 want to speak to FromSoftware that I admire their work and I deeply respect each one that works there,” TheUrbanOrb stated. “I’m grateful for the creative imaginative and prescient they’ve dropped at 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 tips on how to take care of adversity,” as TheUrbanOrb put it. It’s one more reason why he launched into such a tough job. He wished to problem himself, to see if he might memorize the strategies he got here up with and put them to the take a look at underneath actual stress. These video games are a sort of life lesson in tackling the challenges of on a regular basis experiences, TheUrbanOrb instructed us, and one thing he possible received’t neglect.
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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 positive,” he stated. “I really waited to play Elden Ring till I completed this problem as a result of I didn’t wish 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 verify to get well from that first.”
Yeah, I think about TheUrbanOrb would want a superb, lengthy break after this. I couldn’t fathom dedicating a lot time to engaging in such a feat, however as he stated, one of many largest motivators was the individuals who didn’t consider he might do it. He wished to show them flawed. I feel we will safely say he’s executed that.
