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

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates fresh issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.