Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, although many players have attempted to complete the game with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.