Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.