Streaming Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game with just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new problems, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.