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

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.