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

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the title using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is especially important when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs 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 file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the world. Some would consider these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

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