Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to finish the game with only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls between 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 branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He can't always duplicate items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.