Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <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 exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to complete the game with just a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full 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 the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character gains full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily clone items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.