A Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom player has spent six months and 1,855 hours collecting 999,999 Poe beneath Hyrule, all because they were curious.
As first reported by Automaton Media, the Twitter user seen below proclaimed last week that they'd discovered the maximum number of Poe players can collect in Tears of the Kingdom. These are the little wisp-like spirits scattered around the Depths underneath Hyrule, and the player's determination has revealed you can collect a maximum of 999,999 Poe.
ポゥカンスト!!上限は999999でした。去年の6月から集め続け1855時間かかりました。もう疲れちゃって 全然動けなくてェ… #ゼルダの伝説 #TearsOfTheKingdom #Zelda #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/8HW81BUGt1January 7, 2024
The player has been tirelessly collecting Poe since June last year, and it's taken them a grand total of 1,885 hours. Why did they do all this? They tell Automaton Media that they did it purely because they were "curious" and wanted to keep playing Tears of the Kingdom for a long time. 1,885 hours definitely is a long time, we'll give them that.
The player has even outlined the optimal Poe-collecting route in the video just below. You can sweep up 5,500 Poe in four hours if you're willing to follow the route they've marked below. They told the outlet that on days where they had more time on their hands, they'd do three of these routes, totaling just over 16,000 Poe in over 12 hours.
ポゥ周回ルートとポイント動画の足跡たどれば1周5500位収集できます。グランポゥのリポップは平均4時間。赤い月ではリポップしない。キースやコガーマ、スタル系の雑魚は2万集めた位から湧かない。2万ぶっ通しするとフリーズする。 #ゼルダの伝説 #TearsOfTheKingdom #Zelda #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/rI4FmFFXNcJanuary 8, 2024
There are actually two routes in the video above: one starting from the hole at Hyrule Field and heading south to South Lomei Depths Labyrinth, while another charts a course northeast from the hole to just below the Lost Woods. These two routes take a combined total of right around four hours.
What's sort of critical to this route is the fact that Grand Poe, which is worth 20 Poe, only respawns every four hours, and doesn't respawn with the Blood Moon. Perhaps that's why the user did this route in four-hour chunks, so the Grand Poe was basically guaranteed to respawn each time.
The user also took on this seemingly insurmountable task for another reason: they simply couldn't find any good methods for Poe-collecting on websites. Sorry about that.
In other Zelda-related news, a Tears of the Kingdom producer said it's up to the audience whether Link and Zelda are dating, which is a bit of a non-commitment.