Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>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 novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, 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 run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates fresh issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. Some would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't always clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.