Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

This creates fresh issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the world. Some would consider these means reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

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