Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven 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 arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the Link he pulls across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would find these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

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