Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.