Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have tried to finish the game with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load certain locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.