Streaming Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game using just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to phase through the world. Some would find these means reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.