Streaming Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to finish the game with just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. A few would find these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last several hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He is unable to always clone items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.