Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the title that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The video edit of his quest spares the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He can't necessarily clone items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite 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. Rest in peace.