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

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This causes fresh issues, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open some areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a weak weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. RIP.