Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that fails to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.