Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes new issues, though. The fused file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that fails to load some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these means reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.