Tears of the Kingdom player spends 6 months and 1,885 hours collecting 999,999 Poe because they were "curious"

Nintendo/mh_1225_squall via Twitter
(Image credit: Nintendo/mh_1225_squall via Twitter)

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.

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.

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.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.