Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while numerous players have attempted to finish the game using only a stick, content creator PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.