One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the exact same one throughout.
The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.
So, How?
So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.
That creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it starts working properly.
Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges
Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. 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 abundant supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.
Boss Fights and the Final Showdown
The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.
So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?
In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.
