Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: 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 challenge runs that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have tried to finish the game with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third save file that merges the states of the original two.

That creates new issues, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like 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 game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the world. A few would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every 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 Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.