Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete the game with only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes fresh issues, though. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.