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

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although numerous gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with zero stamina. A one-branch run, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially important when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates new issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would find these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.