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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate items during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.