Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have attempted to finish the game with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire game. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. 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” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He can't always clone objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.