Streaming Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of creative self-imposed challenges that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have tried to finish the game with just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick run, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “preparation” file where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates new issues, however. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to load some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and perseverance. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a glitch that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would consider these means grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat several of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them take several hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He is unable to always clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over 1,000 users in his live stream. Rest in peace.