Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That creates new issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive 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 grueling. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.