Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have tried to complete the game using only a stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch playthrough, however, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the whole game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the conditions of the original two.

That creates new problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the game partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the character he transfers across dimensions is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is nonetheless a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that gives him an abundant number of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these means reason to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do anything necessary to engage his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the battles appear grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the audience endure the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer banned over 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.