Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to complete the game using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates new problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that renders 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 items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

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