One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one throughout.
PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.
So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that merges the states of the original two.
This creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to load 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 starts functioning correctly.
Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.
PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.
Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon 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 a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.
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