Brave Player Beat Dark Souls 3 Using Just One Button

FromSoftware's Dark Souls series of games are hard enough with your standard controller, but one mad lad/Twitch streamer has managed to beat the entire game using just one button and some Morse code!

How Did They Beat The Game With One Button?

Twitch streamer Dylan "Rudeism" Beck is known for his outlandish controllers, purposely restricting himself and finishing notoriously difficult games. He has previously completed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with an actual ocarina, Fall Guys using jelly beans, and even Hades by setting up a customised pomegranate controller. God knows how he discovered his talents, but it makes for great entertainment and shows how the hardest games can be taken to pieces in creative ways. 

As many of you will know, the Dark Souls series can be extremely difficult, so it’s almost a celebratory occasion to just beat it the standard way. After all, this is the draw of the Soulsborne genre and one of the reasons it rose to success during the 2010s. The standard way isn’t really Rudeism’s style though - thus the single-button setup.

He made a tweet to celebrate the final moments of his arduous journey, where he defeated the final boss. It also tells us that it took a total of 258,250 button presses to finish the game, beating 19 bosses in the process. In order to play the game with the one button, Rudeism mapped the various in-game inputs to Morse code. For example, a roll is a single dot, attack is a single dash, forward was to two dots, back-step two dashes, etc. For any doubters as well, he set up a camera on the button to show his inputs.

What Have They Got Planned Next?

Rudeism wants to finish the DLCs for Dark Souls 3 next, meaning he can really show the game who’s boss. He explained a little of his thought process behind these self-inflicted challenges, stating that it’s his way of advocating for more accessibility in video games - something that is a constant contentious point in the wider gaming discourse.

It’s an admirable cause, and we hope FromSoftware takes notice, as even purposefully challenging experiences like Soulsborne games can only benefit from increased accessibility. The next Soulsborne set to come is the upcoming Elden Ring on February 25. A Song of Ice and Fire writer George R. R. Martin collaborated with FromSoftware to help the worldbuilding for the game. 

It’s set to come to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and select PC storefronts.