Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character gains full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates new issues, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.