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

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new game file that merges the states of the original two.

That creates new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the title that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate items during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.