Streaming Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the whole world. Yet if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The full answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates new issues, though. The merged file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that allows him to clip through the world. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of sorts stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll ban a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate items during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.