Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the states of the first two files.

That creates new problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. Some would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to always clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.