Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <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 rules on a playthrough. However, although many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He can't always duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.