Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick
One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.
PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.
The Method Behind the Madness
How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.
That creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles
Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.
Major Battles and the Last Encounter
PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the battle.
Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?
In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.
