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

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. 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 load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.