Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom'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 preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.