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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have tried to finish the game using just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple 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 separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, however. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.