Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have tried to finish the game using just a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires full endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't always clone objects during the battle.

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

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.