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

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible 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 especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the states of the first two files.

That creates fresh issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the title that refuses to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.