Streaming Personality Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>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 debuted, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a playthrough. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who endeavored to beat the game with a single stick—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the time he went through the game solely with explosives or the effort where he tried to defeat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the opening sequence, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete story, believe it or not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” file where he advances normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum stamina and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and halts partway through to instruct the game to load an auto-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.

This creates new problems, however. The merged save file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that fails to open some areas. As with other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of Link is coded so that he cannot break any tools he wields, likely to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the start of the game. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He additionally employs a bug that allows him to phase through the world. Some would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of sorts stating that, for every fairy he employs, he'll ban a fan from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Showdown

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the viewer sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when some of them last multiple long hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still only a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects midway the fight.

So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the software forces the player to use the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only run. But what fun is that?

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