Blindfolded ‘Sekiro’ speedrunner explains his strategies

Mitchriz completed Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice blindfolded during Awesome Games Done Quick 2022 and has shared how he accomplished it.

“I knew I could do it blindfolded, or at least do all the bosses blindfolded. Someone was going to do it eventually, so I wanted to give it a shot.” Mitchriz explained to Fanbyte. “It’s not like Dark Souls where there’s the stamina and the rolling and it’s hard to navigate, Sekiro is very consistent. Everyone had the feeling that it could be done. I wanted to be the first person to do it.”

To complete the speed run, Mitchriz needed to rely on his memory of the game and the audio cues provided to him. Using these, he achieved the game’s bad “shura”, ending in just over two hours while unable to see the screen.

“Exploring is just a set of movements that I’ve memorised — a set number of dashes, a set ‘turn this way,’ a set slash this direction, I try not to count to a certain number, but that can work if you get yourself stuck.”

Many of the boss fights in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are complicated but can be learned over time as foes use consistent attack patterns.

“As soon as that perfect fight goes wrong, like I lose the lock-on, he runs away instead of attacking me, he does whatever else, it pretty much becomes that I now have to fight him the same way as sighted. I know how to fight him sighted, which means I don’t need to really see him to do it. I can hear him. I know that sound means he’s running away, that grunt means he’s about to do an overhead slam. I have a plan, but that improvisation is just a part of speedrunning.”

Mitchriz also said that a blindfolded playthrough aiming for the best ending could be challenging because of the Fountainhead Plaza section. Here players have to swim past a giant carp, and the additional dimension of movement is an extra obstacle when blindfolded.

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