Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers 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 adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that fails to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.