Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that after two years since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that impose special rules on a playthrough. However, although numerous players have tried to finish the game using just a stick, content creator PointCrow stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the very same one from start to finish.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, like the time he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he aimed to defeat the story with zero energy. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces Link to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch breaks, that's the end. 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 Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him completing the intro and initial tutorial island, and this character acquires full endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cutscene and halts midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets mixed up and generates a third game file that merges the states of the original two.

This causes fresh issues, though. The fused file has a protagonist that did not obtain the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that refuses to open some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then updates the game midway through to make sure it starts functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is programmed so that he is unable to damage any weapons he uses, presumably to avoid a situation where the user gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's also how PointCrow gets around the wear issue, as the character he transfers between universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a clever technique, but not a method that eliminates all potential friction. The branch is still a ineffective item that renders battles onerous. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of items to boost his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a glitch that enables him to phase through the environment. A few would find these methods reason to discredit the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He also uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer succeeds to defeat many of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his quest spares the viewer sit through the entire conflicts, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable stick is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the user to use the legendary weapon as the final 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, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.