Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick
One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.
The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.
The Method Behind the Madness
So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.
This creates new problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges
Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.
Major Battles and the Last Showdown
PointCrow succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects during the battle.
Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?
When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.
