Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick run, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires 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 game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This creates new problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not acquired the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that fails to open some locations. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a bug that allows him to clip 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 willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items during the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.