Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous players have tried to complete the game using just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this character gains full stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save 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 enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to open some areas. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his journey spares the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.