Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.