Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying 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 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes new issues, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to always clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

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