Stray has completely taken over the internet, with seemingly everyone on my timeline currently playing the futuristic feline adventure. But one YouTuber has taken what is, at least for most people, a fairly quiet cat game and made it much more difficult to figure out a way to get through the entire game without taking any damage.
After years of hype and trailers, cat simulator Stray launched last week on PS5 and PC to rave reviews and lots of love online. People have quickly started modding the game and have been sharing screenshots of the game’s gorgeous city, along with videos of them being silly kittens. But while many players were leisurely exploring the richly dense world of Stray, YouTuber Hayate Bahadori was spending hours upon hours practicing and perfecting a way to beat the game without taking damage or dying.
According to Bahadori, it took nearly 20 hours of practice and attempts to pull off his July 23 Stray streak on PC. If you’ve played Stray, you probably already know what he spent most of his time doing: avoiding all those pesky little Zurk creatures. In fact, Bahadori says the hardest part of the entire run happens early on during the game’s first “Zurk Run,” itself tied to an achievement called “Can’t Catch Me.”
“This [first run in Chapter 2] it’s the most difficult because of the density of Zurks and how narrow the area you’re moving through is,” Bahadori told Kotaku.
There are a total of three Zurk Runs in Stray, and while they’re a bit easier than the first one you encounter, all three cause problems and can end a run without damage. And the Bahadori rules say that if any of these little bugs just touch the cat, it’s game over and he has to restart the race entirely. Since most of Stray is harmless, these Zurk Runs are the main barrier to getting through the entire game without damaging a single hair on the cat’s head.
“This race basically comes down to the Zurks,” Bahadori said. “Once you beat them, with the exception of the prison break, the run is simple.”
Although a later threat in the game appears in the form of sentries, the YouTuber explained that they are quite easy to sneak up on. So it all comes down to mastering how to dance all those pesky Zurks.
“You really need to understand how the Zurk AI works and how to trick it into doing what you want,” Bahadori said. “Understanding the AI and how to move around areas doesn’t automatically guarantee success, as there is a huge RNG component to how the Zurks spawn around you.”
One of the key techniques he developed during his attempts was to quickly move left and right, as this movement seems to throw the AI NPCs for a loop and can help you sneak around without getting hit .
If Bahadori seems to be really, really good at beating Stray without taking damage, it probably helps that this is something he does a lot. Many of his videos on YouTube are dedicated to showing people how he finishes games like God of War and Spider-Man without taking damage or dying. Earlier this year, he achieved the incredible feat of beating every major Assassin’s Creed game without taking a single point of damage.
For Bahadori, he does it not only because he enjoys breaking game systems and mastering them, but he also says he loves the opportunity to teach people how to do what he does and is always excited when people asks him questions about his careers.
“I’m a simulation engineer in real life,” Bahadori explained. “[I] I really enjoy the process of breaking it down game by game to figure out how the game was coded and where I can bend the AI and game systems to achieve these kinds of runs.”
Even though he’s done with Stray at this point, he’s now figuring out how to get through even more games without taking damage. He is currently working on the Batman Arkham series and has plans to run future games including Gotham Knights and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.