Highlights

  • Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe is a unique mini-boss in Sekiro due to its consistent pressure and aggressive attacks.
  • Its fast pace sets the baseline rhythm for Sekiro's intense combat, helping players adjust to the game's speed.
  • Facing Long-Arm early can prepare players for tougher fights by honing in on the game's rhythm-centered combat.

Among the large selection of mini-bosses in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe stands out as a unique encounter for more than only its odd name. In a game all about getting in sync with the rhythm of some of FromSoftware's toughest bosses, this is one that is made simpler by the fact that this is one of the most aggressive bosses and keeps the pressure consistent from start to finish.

Locked away in a little room in the Sunken Valley, Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe is an unassuming mini-boss that comes right before a much more formative part of the Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice experience. However, as a mandatory roadblock before reaching the Sunken Valley Passage where the Guardian Ape resides, it's an oddity that every player will eventually need to face.

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Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe Sets Sekiro's Base Rhythm

The Pace of Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe

While much of the difficulty of Sekiro comes from the incredibly fast pace of combat, the flow of attacks and deflects isn't as much of a haphazard flurry of blows as it might appear at first glance. For every enemy, from the noble Genichiro to Sword Saint Isshin, these constant attacks come out so consistently that Sekiro is often compared to a rhythm game. This same trend continues for even the mini-bosses like Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe, with the key to victory being hidden in the quiet rhythm that the game wants players to tap along with.

In the case of Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe, however, this pace is one of the fastest that the game provides, but it is much more consistent than a lot of other fights. While most bosses, like Sekiro's Guardian Ape, will step back for brief moments and reset their posture bars, the Centipede is aggressive enough to rarely let up on its own attacks. This means that the mini-boss doesn't throw out too many tricks or breaks in the pace to trip up players, instead keeping the speed steady throughout the encounter.

A Baseline for Sekiro's Intense Speed

It's in this steady series of attacks that Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe succeeds further than even the tutorial built into the game with Hanbei the Undying. While the stakes are certainly higher against this mini-boss than against the undying NPC, Long-Arm's simple combat design can help players get in tune with the baseline speed of Sekiro more easily. Beating the Long-Arm helps to give players the muscle memory that they can then take into even tougher boss encounters like Lady Butterfly.

Considering how difficult Sekiro can be, with the limited build variety and meaningful stat improvements being locked directly behind bosses, getting in tune with the baseline rhythm of the game is a crucial aspect to master. Therefore, facing off against the Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe as quickly as possible can be a key to honing in on what the game demands of players and preparing for the tougher fights to come. This might not help players quickly read every boss' telegraphs and punish windows, but it will at least get players prepared for Sekiro's rhythm-centered combat that will remain consistent moving forward.

An Earlier Fight Could Have Prepared Players Sooner

While the difficulty of Sekiro certainly ramps up in later areas as more and more powerful enemies are introduced, it should be noted that many of the early mini-bosses set players up for quite the struggle. Between the Chained Ogre and the Blazing Bull, the early game is littered with difficult encounters that play almost nothing like what will be coming to follow them. In that case, introducing an enemy like Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe with a set of high-speed attacks without too many abnormal gimmicks could have helped streamline the opening of the game. That being said, the location he exists now does get players prepared as the difficulty curve starts to take a sharp turn.