Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to complete the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he played the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon 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 removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.