One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have tried to finish the game using just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.
The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.
The Method Behind the Madness
How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.
That causes new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to load some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.
Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles
Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.
Major Battles and the Last Showdown
PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items during the battle.
So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?
When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.
