Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <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 debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, though. The fused file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He is unable to always clone items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.