If you watched this year’s Awesome Games Done Quick charity speedrunning event, then you likely tuned in for its headliner: a blindfolded run through Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It seems like it shouldn’t be possible, but the dedication runner Mitchriz did to memorize and train made it a reality, and he spoke to GameSpot about just how he did it.
In the breakdown, Mitchriz explained that prior to doing blindfolded runs of the game, he had been trying to do all the challenges he could find, but it got to a point where everyone had basically done all there was to do in Sekiro. Since others had done individual blindfolded runs, he decided the next step would be for someone to try doing the whole game that way.
You can see his strategies for all the bosses in the video above. As he had to rely on sound alone during the live run, he wasn’t able to hear what the commentators were saying and didn’t communicate with the audience, so this is a great chance to hear directly from him on why he made certain decisions.
Spoilers for Sekiro to follow.
One of the most iconic boss fights in the game is the Guardian Ape, a fake-out fight that sees you having to battle the boss after already cutting his head off. For this fight, Mitchriz explained that the boss is designed to run away after taking the final hit in a combo attack. However, by purposely not doing the final attack, he will not run away and this phase can be completed very quickly.
For the second phase, things get a little more hectic. This phase is ridiculously tough, even without a blindfold, so his strategy consisted of using every item he has while using the jumping Mortal Draw attack to finish the Guardian Ape off as quickly as possible.
Check out the full video above for more strategies for blindfolded Sekiro runs, and head over to the GDQ YouTube channel for a full archived version of the stream.
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