Twitch Star Spends 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 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have attempted to finish the game using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This causes new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably 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 durability issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to clip through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity 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 also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last several hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.