Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have attempted to finish the game with only a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

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