Streaming Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to complete the game using just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This causes fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to load some locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy 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 implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube version of his journey spares the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.