Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying 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 Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, however. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.