Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh issues, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.