Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have tried to complete the game using only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character gains full endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh issues, though. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. Some would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.