Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, though. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user 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 trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.