Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to complete the game with just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that refuses to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He can't necessarily clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

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