Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires 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 branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to load some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. Some would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.