Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick
One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.
PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.
The Method Behind the Madness
How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.
That creates new problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges
Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.
Major Battles and the Final Encounter
PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the fight.
Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?
In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.