Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates new problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. 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 necessarily clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.