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

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his quest spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.