Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick
One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.
The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the stick 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 alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.
That creates fresh issues, however. The fused file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges
Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.
Major Battles and the Last Showdown
The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone items during the battle.
Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?
When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.