Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to complete the game with just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link acquires full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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