Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to complete the game with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh problems, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows him to phase through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take multiple hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.