Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the title that refuses to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.