Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game with only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance 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 system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh issues, though. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant 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 environment. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.