Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these methods 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 entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to always clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.