Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes fresh issues, though. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.