Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to complete the game with only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software 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 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.