Twitch Personality Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of creative challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have attempted to finish the game using just a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to beat the game with a one stick—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the game using only explosives or the attempt where he aimed to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole durability mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple answer is glitches. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory file has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the software to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets confused and creates a new save file that combines the states of the first two files.

That creates fresh problems, though. The fused file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes readily, but executing it means relying on an unstable version of the title that refuses to open some locations. Like other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets stuck at the start of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the durability problem, as the character he pulls across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would find these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his live stream, creating an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to get through several of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He can't necessarily clone items during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, 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 over 1,000 people in his Twitch chat. RIP.