Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.