Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to complete the game using just a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the fight.

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

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.