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

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy 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 Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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