Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick run, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes fresh issues, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that fails to load some areas. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.