Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the states of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, though. The fused save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the game that fails to open certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than a thousand people in his live stream. RIP.