Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that fails to open certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these means grounds to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.