Streaming Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.