Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to clip through the world. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He can't always clone items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.