Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes new issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue 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. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The video version of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He is unable to always clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.