Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game with only a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.