Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have tried to complete the game using only a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.