Twitch Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his live stream, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them last several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.