Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.