Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. Some would find these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.