Streaming Personality Dedicates 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 arrived, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to complete the game with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't always clone items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.