Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have attempted to finish the game using only a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one branch—specifically, the exact same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, like the time he went through the game solely with bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, though, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can manipulate the game's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this Link acquires full endurance and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that combines the states of the original two.

That causes new problems, however. The fused save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the game that fails to load 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 updates the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, presumably to prevent a situation where the user gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He also uses a safeguard of kinds stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the fights appear grueling. The YouTube edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them take multiple long hours. One enemy encounter, a powerful foe, takes an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's health as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is still only a stick. He can't always clone items during the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the game forces the player to use the legendary weapon as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.