Twitch Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That causes new problems, however. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the battle.

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

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.