Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.