Streaming Personality Spends Thirty-Seven Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a Single Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a gameplay session. However, while numerous gamers have attempted to finish the game using only a wooden stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the player who aimed to clear the game with a one stick—meaning, the very same one throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, like the time he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to wield the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest weapon in the entire world. But if the branch breaks, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's save file system to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the real save, where he's limited. The setup save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires maximum endurance and hearts. From this point, he starts a cutscene and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third save file that combines the conditions of the first two files.

That causes fresh issues, however. The fused save file has a Link that did not acquired the capability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit addresses easily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy build of the title that refuses to open some locations. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the Link he transfers between universes is the one from the start of the story. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. A few would consider these methods grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a resourceful gamer who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for every spirit he uses, he'll remove a viewer from his Twitch chat, establishing an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles appear painful. The YouTube edit of his journey doesn't make the audience sit through the whole fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable tense moment. The indestructible branch is after all just a piece of wood. He can't necessarily clone objects during the fight.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the dragon version of the antagonist. But the software forces the user to use the Master Sword as the last 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, PointCrow banned more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.