Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his quest spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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