Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have tried to finish the game with only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. 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 restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods reason 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 implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items during the battle.

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

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.