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

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have attempted to complete the game with just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, though. The fused file has a Link that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.