Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the title that fails to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would find these methods grounds to question the validity 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 uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.