Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many players have attempted to complete the game with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates new issues, though. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

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

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.