Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <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 novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a playthrough. However, although numerous gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his journey spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them last several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a stick. He can't always duplicate items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.