Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game with just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes new problems, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a stick. He can't always duplicate items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.