Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game with only a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, 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 mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. A few would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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