One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.
PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the time he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.
The Method Behind the Madness
So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or 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 creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the states of the original two.
This creates fresh problems, however. The fused file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.
Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges
Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.
Major Battles and the Final Encounter
The streamer manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.
Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?
In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.
