Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That creates new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.