Streaming Personality Dedicates Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have attempted to complete the game with only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to beat the game with no stamina. A single stick run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is especially important when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the stick shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This creates new problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the title that fails to load certain areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the game partway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers between universes is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a glitch that allows him to clip through the world. A few would find these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll ban one fan from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which erases Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the user to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

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