Twitch Star Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

One could think that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of creative challenge runs that apply special rules on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous players have attempted to complete the game with only a stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a one stick—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no energy. A one-branch run, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the branch breaks, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. Apparently, you can tweak the game's save file system to have separate game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character acquires full stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to load an automatic save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a new game file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that did not obtain the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means relying on an buggy build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any weapons he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the wear issue, as the character he transfers across universes is the version from the beginning of the story. It's a smart technique, but not a method that eradicates all potential difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an abundant supply of items to improve his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that enables him to phase through the world. Some would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further uses a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban a viewer from his live stream, establishing an motivation to not overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to defeat several of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the battles look grueling. The video edit of his journey spares the viewer endure the whole fights, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible 23 straight. The final villain battle, which depletes Link's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a piece of wood. He can't necessarily duplicate items during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, he does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game forces the player to use the Master Sword as the last strike, so strictly speaking, it's not quite completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, the streamer banned more than a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.