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

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have tried to complete the game using only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's 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 impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

This causes new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the world. Some would find these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.