Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

That creates new issues, though. The fused save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.