Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <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, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete the game using only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates fresh issues, however. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these methods grounds to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He is unable to always clone items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.