Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to finish the game using just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the adventure with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a new game file that combines the states of the first two files.

That creates new problems, however. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to phase through the environment. Some would find these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't always clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.