Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have tried to complete Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for such difficult playthroughs, such as the time he played the title using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, however, sounds unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire game. Yet if the stick breaks, that's the end. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and initial starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he triggers a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the software to load an automatic save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, however. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the title that fails to load certain locations. Like everything else, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all potential difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the world. Some would consider these means grounds to discredit the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He further implements a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them take several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf battle, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible branch is still only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he does overcome the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.