Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes new problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that refuses to open some locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. Some would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.