Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete the game using just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This causes new problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always clone items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.