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

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to finish the game using only a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and generates a new game file that combines the states of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it 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 starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak weapon that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that enables him to clip through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.