Streaming Star 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 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have tried to finish the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a single stick—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to open some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. Some would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.