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

You might assume that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. However, although many gamers have tried to finish the game with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—meaning, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the game solely with bombs or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, sounds 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 relevant when working with the weakest tool in the entire game. Yet if the branch shatters, that's the end. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” save where he progresses standardly, and the actual file, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to tell the game to load an automatic save from the stick file. The game gets confused and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

This creates fresh problems, however. The merged file has a Link that never obtain the ability to access sacred places. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain areas. Like everything else, 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 midway through to ensure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Curiously, 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 user gets trapped at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he transfers between dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eliminates all possible friction. The branch is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a matter of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that gives him an plentiful number of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs a bug that allows him to clip through the world. Some would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a resourceful player who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for every spirit he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube version of his quest doesn't make the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is still only a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone items midway the fight.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of Ganon. But the software compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned over 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.