Twitch Personality Spends 37 Hours 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 arrived, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete the game using only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, though. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to load some locations. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between universes 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 nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.