Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would find these methods grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his journey spares the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last several hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.