Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: 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, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the title using only explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain areas. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to always clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.