Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to complete the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.