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

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many players have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the game with zero energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak item that makes battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. Some would find these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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