Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have tried to complete the game with just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.