Twitch Personality Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This causes new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

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