Twitch Star 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 creative challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that fails to open some areas. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.