Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while many players have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the game using only explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with zero energy. A single stick run, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the stick breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this Link acquires full endurance and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an unstable version of the game that refuses to load some areas. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the character he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of grit and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a glitch that allows Link to clip through the world. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.