Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have tried to finish the game with just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps 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 phase through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to always clone items during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.