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

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although numerous gamers have tried to complete the game using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version 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 makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.