Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is barely two weeks old and yet the speedrunning community has already torn it apart. In an effort to clear Sekiro as quickly as possible, speedrunners have discovered numerous glitches, skips, and other strategies. Amazingly enough, some of the quickest runs involve finishing the game in well under an hour.
Sekiro Speedrunning Mastery
One of the most entertaining elements of Sekiro speedrunning is that stealth goes completely out the door. Speedrunners don’t really have time to slowly skulk around so they’ll just barrel through Sekiro’s encounters at lightning speed. Even the game’s opening sequence, a sequence that’s supposed to be done stealthily, is over in under a minute.
The various glitches and skips that speedrunners have found are no less impressive in their execution. It turns out that bosses like the Blazing Bull can be skipped entirely if you know what you’re doing. Also, a clever glitch allows speedrunners to drop down into the Illusion Hall by clipping through the Temple Grounds. This essentially sequence-breaks the game and cuts out huge swaths of mid-game content. Oh, and watching speedrunners navigate the giant serpent encounter is a thing of beauty.
Unsurprisingly, most speedrunners opt for the Shura ending since it’s the quickest ending to get. Some runners, however, have been opting for the Immortal Severance ending since the Shura ending feels a bit premature. One popular glitchless category is the ‘All Memories’ category. As its name infers, the category involves defeating all bosses who drop Combat Memories as quickly as possible.
Due to their nature, the glitchless runs take a little longer, while the any percent runs are often sub-60 minutes. Considering how it took me over 40 hours to clear Sekiro, seeing it demolished in under one is strongly cathartic. Sekiro speedrunning isn’t just about memorizing optimal routes, it’s also about being able to consistently take down tough enemies. In that regard, the game’s speedrunning community has already turned it into a sweet, fun-to-watch science.