Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to complete the game using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.