Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.