Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch
One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.
The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick run, however, seems 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 important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.
The Method Behind the Madness
How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” 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 acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.
That causes fresh issues, though. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles
Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.
Major Battles and the Final Showdown
The streamer manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the fight.
Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?
In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.