Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. However, while many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This causes new issues, however. The fused file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player 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 beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows him to phase through the world. Some would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video version of his journey spares the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.