Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.