Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game with just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to load some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.