Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.