Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while many players have attempted to complete the game using only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the states of the original two.

This causes fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that fails to load some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.