Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have tried to complete the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to phase through the world. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still only a stick. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.