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

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds 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 system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video edit of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

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