Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete the game with only a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. 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 important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This causes fresh problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. Some would find these methods grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily clone items during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.