Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates new issues, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of items to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.