Streaming Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new game file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the title that fails to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.