Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the time he played the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this character gains full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It also aids 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 employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.