Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

That creates fresh issues, though. The fused file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would find these means reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.