Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <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 debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, however. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to load certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. Some would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look grueling. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He can't always clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.