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

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates new issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.