Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have tried to finish the game with just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is particularly important when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this character acquires full stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy 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 further uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.