Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although many players have tried to finish the game with only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character gains full stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to enter sacred places. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable build of the title that refuses to load some locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.