Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat 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 wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

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