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

One could think that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that impose special restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have tried to finish the game with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a one branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, seems impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially important when dealing with the most fragile tool in the whole game. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires maximum stamina and health. From here, he triggers a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that merges the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit addresses readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any tools he uses, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the character he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak weapon that makes encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his strength, or stock up on healing spirits. He also makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the world. Some would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube version of his journey doesn't make the audience endure the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is after all only a stick. He is unable to necessarily duplicate items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the game compels the user to use the Master Sword as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over a thousand people in his live stream. Rest in peace.