Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have tried to complete the game using only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still only a stick. He is unable to always clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.