Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. However, although many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a third save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh issues, however. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, 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 certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.