Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many players have tried to finish the game using just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.