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

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have tried to complete the game with just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That causes fresh issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.