Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although numerous players have attempted to complete the game with just a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which forces Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes new issues, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the world. A few would find these means grounds to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the last strike, so technically, it's not completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.