Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. However, while many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer 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 separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the states of the original two.

This causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to open some locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.