Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link 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 whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.