Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a playthrough. However, while many players have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the stick breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates new issues, however. The fused file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that refuses to load some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability issue, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone objects midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

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