Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load some locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still just a stick. He can't always duplicate items midway the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.