Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that fails to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.