Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have attempted to complete the game using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the title that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes 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 clone items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.