Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, like the time he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates new problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.