Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch 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 playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to finish the game with just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. 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 system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.