Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch run, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube version of his journey spares the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.