Twitch Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to finish the game with only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the stick breaks, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the actual save, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the game to load an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That causes fresh issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not acquired the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all potential friction. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of items to improve his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the environment. A few would find these means grounds to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's bosses, but the battles look painful. The video edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone items during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.