Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to complete the game using just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

This causes new problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that fails to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.