Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete the game with just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates new problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.