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

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to complete the game using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.