Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using 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 self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open some locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.