Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have attempted to complete the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This creates fresh issues, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.