Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new game file that combines the states of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, 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 open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would find these means reason to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.