Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his quest spares the audience endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a stick. He is unable to always clone objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed more than a thousand users in his live stream. Rest in peace.