Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous players have attempted to finish the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That creates new problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the world. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.