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

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the weakest tool in the entire world. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new game file that combines the states of the first two files.

This causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He can't always duplicate items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.