Twitch Personality Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many players have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom using just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward answer is exploits. The full answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him going through the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and hearts. From here, he triggers a cutscene and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new issues, though. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not acquired the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that fails to load certain locations. Like everything else, he has a clever solution for it: He begins the game on its early 1.0 build, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of the hero is programmed so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, likely to prevent a scenario where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It further helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also implements a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles appear grueling. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He can't always clone items during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.