Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the title that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to phase through the world. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He can't always clone objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.