Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to open some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these means reason to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.