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

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch run, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

This creates new problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.