Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to finish the game using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

This creates new problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.