Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new game file that combines the states of the first two files.

This causes new problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.