Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have attempted to finish the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

That creates new problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the title that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, 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 begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

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