Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have tried to finish the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.