Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer 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 playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

This creates fresh issues, though. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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