Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That causes new problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.