Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have tried to complete the game with just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh issues, though. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his quest spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He can't always clone objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

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