Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight 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, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible 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 system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, though. The fused file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.