Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have tried to finish the game using only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, however. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to load some areas. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.