Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero energy. A single stick run, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would find these means reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.