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

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the title solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load some locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.