Twitch Personality Spends 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to complete the game with only a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts 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 conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh issues, however. The fused file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a stick. He is unable to always clone objects during the battle.

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

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.