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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A single stick run, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to open some locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak item that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would find these means reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The video edit of his journey spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.