Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Straight 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, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to complete the game using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, though. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also 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 also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his quest spares the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a stick. He can't always clone items during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.