You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.
PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch 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 system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.
So, How?
So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.
This creates fresh problems, however. The fused file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts working properly.
Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges
Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.
Boss Fights and the Final Showdown
The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.
Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?
In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.
