On April 1, Twitch streamer Seki did something very impressive in FromSoftware’s Elden Ring. After many attempts and practice, the expert player completed what appears to be the world’s first recorded no-hit/no-damage run of Elden Ring.
Seki’s no-hit/no damage run took about just under 3 hours to complete and was done live on stream, with him posting an image of his victory shortly afterward on Twitter, excitedly announcing the news. In his tweet, Seki claimed that his impressive run was a “world’s first.” Some folks questioned this and pointed to a different, earlier run by streamer GinoMachino from March 13. However, while GinoMachino did complete Elden Ring without taking any hits, that run is different from what Seki accomplished.
“No-Hit/No Damage is harder than a regular no-hit run as the player cannot take [any] environmental damage such as fall damage/poison etc,” Seki explained to Kotaku. “This adds difficulty to the run as I don’t have access to buffs such as Red-Feathered Branchsword which could potentially increase my damage output if I had low health.”
This means Seki has to avoid any and all types of damage, big or small, during the entire run. Think about how many times you’ve been playing Elden Ring and accidentally fell and took some fall damage or got poisoned in a swamp. If anything like that happens to Seki during his run, he has to start over. This condition turns an already tricky and challenging game into an even harder beast to conquer.
Watching the successful run is wild. Seeing someone complete Elden Ring in under 3 hours without their health bar ever going down is very compelling content, even if you (like myself) have no interest in FromSoftware games or Elden Ring.
(There is one moment during the run when Seki puts on a special talisman that increases his damage and health. At that moment, his health bar expands and it looks like he has taken damage, but this is just how the item works.)
According to the streamer, who has done similar no-hit runs in other FromSoftware games like Sekiro, he spent over 130 hours just trying to attempt this no-hit/no-damage run. This included planning, practicing, and many, many attempts.
As for what gear Seki prefers when attempting to beat Elden Ring without taking any damage, it’s a basic kit featuring a fan favorite: Moonveil katana.
“I use a dexterity/intelligence build. My main weapon is the Moonveil katana,” explained Seki. He also uses a spell called Rock Sling to help clear out mobs in certain areas of the game.
Read More: How To Get The Moonveil Katana In Elden Ring
Sometimes, with a run like this, you discover that a specific and oddly unexpected part of the game is the trickiest thing to deal with, perhaps a random section filled with toxic enemies or something like that. But Seki told me that, poetically, the hardest part of this entire run was at the very end.
“The hardest part of the run by far is the final boss: Elden Beast,” said Seki.
“It has a specific move that is infamously unfair: Elden Stars. One of the only ways to possibly avoid it is by staggering him while he’s casting the spell. This took dozens of hours of precise practice and training to time correctly.”
So Seki sometimes wouldn’t fail a run until he reached the very end of the game, after essentially playing a perfect game up until that point. And if the boss hit him or did any damage to him at all, he’d have to restart the whole thing.
After pulling off such an impressive feat some might be content to sit back and take a break. Maybe play the game normally and relax a little. But that’s not what Seki has planned. He tells me his next goal is to start working on pulling off an “All Remembrances No-Hit” run, which he calls a “true test of skill.” He’s also excited about the growing speedrunning and hitless runs community of Elden Ring.
“I can’t wait to see the hitless community work together to invent new strategies to beat the game.”
Meanwhile, a lot of other folks are still trying to just beat the first boss in Elden Ring.