Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have attempted to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A single stick run, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes new issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.