Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to complete the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity 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 uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.