Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes new issues, however. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.