Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third save file that merges the states of the original two.

This causes new problems, though. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his quest spares the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.