After 65 failed attempts, Dark Souls speedrunner suffers their worst no-death randomizer defeat yet as a single rat chooses violence and shoves them off a rooftop

There are a lot of ways to die in Dark Souls, some of which are much more likely than others, but it’s safe to say that getting shoved off a rooftop by a rat isn’t generally at the top of the list. 

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Twitch streamer Elajjaz while in the middle of a no-death randomizer run of Dark Souls: Remastered. As the challenge name suggests, both items and enemies are all mixed up so that the streamer never knows what’s lurking around each corner, and each death means he has to start over. Deaths are to be expected – after all, you could walk into an area packed with huge, aggressive foes in place of some small little weaklings who’d normally be there, but with that in mind, it’s pretty surprising that Elajjaz’s 66th attempt was ended by one small rat, which you’d normally dispatch in one or two hits.

Almost seven hours into the run, as Elajjaz explores the Oolacile Township and goes to pick up an item from a rooftop, the evil little rodent sets its sights on him. Before the streamer can detect the danger he’s in, it begins quietly following him up a nearby staircase and suddenly appears behind him. From there, it’s already over – its first attack traps him in a stun lock, and he’s powerless to dodge the rodent’s onslaught as he’s gradually pushed to his death. It hurts to watch.

It’d be an awful way to go out at any point during one of these runs, but the fact that Elajjaz was over halfway through the bosses (he’d beaten 15 out of 26) rubs some extra salt into the wound. You really can’t blame him for rocking back and forth in his chair and holding his head in his hands. Elajjaz has since died a few more times and is currently on his 75th attempt – he’ll no doubt be a little more careful around the rodents from now on, though.

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