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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have tried to complete the game with just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes new issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.