Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to complete the game using just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero energy. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

This causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the one from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the environment. Some would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his quest spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them last several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

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