Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have tried to complete the game with only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character gains full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to phase through the world. Some would consider these means reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate items during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.