Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <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 exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to complete the game with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire game. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter 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 healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these means reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't always clone items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.