Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh issues, however. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He is unable to always clone objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.