Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have tried to finish the game using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.