Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

This causes fresh problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.