Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Stick

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have tried to complete the game using only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that allows him to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The video version of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, he manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.