Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.