Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while many gamers have attempted to finish the game using only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems 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 relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes new issues, however. The fused file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear issue, as the character he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. Some would find these means grounds to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video version of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.