Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have tried to complete the game using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This causes new issues, though. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a weak weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He is unable to always clone items during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.