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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have attempted to complete the game using just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer 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” file where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects 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 user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.