Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game with only a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that fails to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He is unable to always clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.