Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. However, while many players have attempted to finish the game using just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes new problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.