Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would consider these means reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them last several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.