Twitch Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, while numerous players have attempted to complete the game using just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer stands out as the player who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire game. Yet if the stick shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup file has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the ability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game partway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to break any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart trick, but not one that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He also implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't always clone objects midway the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than 1,000 users in his live stream. RIP.