Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to finish the game using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube version of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.