Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.