Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although many players have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would find these methods reason 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 audience. He also uses a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces 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, the streamer removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.