Twitch Star Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to complete the game with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the game with a single stick—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains maximum endurance and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third save file that combines the states of the original two.

That creates fresh issues, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to load certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that enables him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.