Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>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 arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes fresh problems, however. The fused file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load some locations. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He can't always duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.