Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven 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, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have tried to complete the game with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This causes new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. Some would consider these means reason to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube version of his journey spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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