Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That causes new issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that refuses to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still only a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone items during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.