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

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to complete the game using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates new issues, though. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He can't necessarily clone items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.