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

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that refuses to load some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He can't always duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.