Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, like the time he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, 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 “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to phase through the environment. Some would find these means reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look 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 hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.