A Starfield player has successfully accomplished one of the weirdest runs we've heard of yet - finishing the game by only whacking enemies with their gun.
The premise of the challenge is as simple as it sounds: the only attacks allowed are with the butt of a gun (no melee weapons allowed, obviously), and no companions are allowed to accompany the player except when the story requires it. The player must also be on 'Normal' difficulty, and is freely allowed to damage enemy ships via conventional methods in space combat.
With those rules established, Causal Loop on YouTube had at it. They created a parody character of Fallout: New Vegas's pistol-slinging Joshua Graham (dubbed Goshua Jam), and went with the 'Bounty Hunter' class since it gives them a Booster Pack, perfect for jumping out of a jam (a Goshua Jam, even) very quickly.
Causal Loop hits the ground running with a pistol, since it gun bashes quicker than other, heavier weapons. They also note that spamming gun bash mercifully doesn't drain the player's oxygen levels, unlike Fallout, so you can pistol whip enemies to death repeatedly without worrying about suffocating.
The Mantis armor was absolutely paramount for the Starfield run, since it gives the player more damage after they've hit the head of their opponent, and also automatically uses Medpacks when at low health. This is the first elite armor set Causal Loop got their hands on, and it saved their life on more than a few occasions.
The first big challenge is 'The Old Neighborhood' story mission, where our hero proceeds to pistol whip an entire outpost of bandits to death. It's quite tough, and they burn through Medpacks like there's no tomorrow, but they safely emerge on the other side and live to fight another day, probably thinks to Sarah having their back.
Causal Loop then stumbles upon a goldmine: a pistol that deals double gun bash damage, and adds a chance for enemies to drop Medpacks on death. Talk about luck. From there, it's a gun bashing paradise throughout the main story of Starfield, not to mention a few Skill Points to put into the 'Wellness' trait to increase their overall health.
However, they then complete the infamous 'Red Mile' mission, which lets them get the Brute Force, a shotgun which also deals double gun bash damage. The shotgun can't whack folk as fast as the pistol, but it does have the benefit of heavier damage, and became crucial to the rest of the run.
The point of the whole run is basically this: it's weirdly easy to play Starfield without firing a single shot or even using a proper melee weapon. There's really not much more to it than running from point A to B and bashing in the skull of every enemy you see, especially since you can interrupt an enemy's reloading animation by whacking them with your gun.
"In conclusion, while this run wasn't too difficult, it still certainly had its tough moments," Causal Loop says in reflection. It's the final boss (no spoilers here) who gave the YouTuber the most trouble, as all other counters were "fairly doable" due to the Mantis armor and the sheer number of Medpacks they had. Well, there you have it - not really a huge challenge, but a pretty big time sink for a challenge run.
Check out our Starfield endings guide if you want to make sure you've seen and done everything at the end of Bethesda's RPG.
