Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

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