Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have tried to complete the game with just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube version of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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