Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick
You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have attempted to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.
The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.
The Method Behind the Madness
How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.
That causes new problems, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to open some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges
Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.
Major Battles and the Last Showdown
The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items during the battle.
Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?
When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.
