Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh issues, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open some locations. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He can't necessarily clone items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.