Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have attempted to finish the game with just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that fails to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still only a stick. He can't always clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.