Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>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, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that fails to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to clip through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate items during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.