Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete the game using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried 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 wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new problems, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open some areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his quest spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.