Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, although many players have attempted to finish the game using just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the title that refuses to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube version of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.