Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have tried to complete the game with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact 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 going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the title that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some 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 whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He can't always clone items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player 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 removed over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.