Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using 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 novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he played the game solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, however. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his quest spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.