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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous players have tried to finish the game with only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds 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 dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full answer, I kid you 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 creates a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the title that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.