Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to clear the game with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he progresses standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a glitch that allows Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which erases Link's health as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.