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

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to finish the game using just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.