Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have tried to complete the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.