Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have attempted to finish the game using just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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