Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>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 self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to complete the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That causes new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

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