Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new issues, though. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to load some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the world. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience 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 incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.