Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>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 exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have attempted to complete the game using just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that merges the states of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.