Streaming Star Spends Thirty-Seven Hours Attempting to Beat <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted novel challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, although numerous players have attempted to finish the game with only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to clear the adventure with a one branch—meaning, the exact same one throughout.

PointCrow is renowned for these kinds of challenge runs, like the instance he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with zero stamina. A single stick run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the most fragile tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” file where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to instruct the game to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates fresh issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that never acquired the capability to access sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable version of the game that fails to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its early version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Durability and Additional Hurdles

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a matter of determination and perseverance. It also aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that allows Link to phase through the environment. Some would find these means reason to discredit the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not 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 YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer endure the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them take several long hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an incredible 23 hours. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible stick is still only a piece of wood. He can't always duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the software compels the user to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

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