Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have tried to finish the game with just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

This causes new problems, however. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that fails to load some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.