Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven 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 Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains full endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the game that refuses to open some areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds 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 further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look painful. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He is unable to always clone items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.