Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to finish the game with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the world. Some would consider these means grounds to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a stick. He can't always clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.