Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the title solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He can't always clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.