Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh issues, though. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to always clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.