Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick
One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to complete the game with just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.
The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet 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 exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.
That causes fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.
Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles
Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.
Boss Fights and the Last Encounter
PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a stick. He is unable to always clone objects during the battle.
Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?
When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.