Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick
One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.
The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.
The Method Behind the Madness
How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.
That causes new issues, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to load some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles
Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.
Major Battles and the Final Showdown
The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He can't always clone items midway the fight.
Did he succeed? Technically, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?
When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.
