Twitch Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole durability system, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets mixed up and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of Link is programmed so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is still a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant number of items 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. Some would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.