Twitch Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a playthrough. However, while many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using only a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the game with no energy. A single stick playthrough, though, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when working with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator creates a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the states of the first two files.

That causes new issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the game that fails to open some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. Some would find these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Showdown

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his journey spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow banned over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. RIP.