Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-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 creates new issues, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to load some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these means reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.