Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight 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 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids 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 employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the last 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 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.