Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to complete the game with only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains full stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new issues, though. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always clone items during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.