Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to complete the game with just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The fused file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to load certain areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.