Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have tried to finish the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the game that fails to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the fights look painful. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He can't always clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.