Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a One Branch

You might assume that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that apply special restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, although many gamers have attempted to complete Tears of the Kingdom with only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the game with a one stick—specifically, the exact same stick throughout.

The streamer is renowned for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the title solely with explosives or the effort where he aimed to defeat the game with zero energy. A one-branch run, though, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the entire weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly important when dealing with the weakest tool in the whole world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

The Method Behind the Madness

How did he do it? The simple answer is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So PointCrow does a “setup” save where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's limited. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first starting area, and this character acquires maximum stamina and hearts. From this point, he triggers a cinematic and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an automatic save from the branch-only file. The game gets mixed up and generates a third game file that combines the conditions of the original two.

That creates new issues, however. The merged file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes easily, but pulling it off means relying on an unstable build of the game that fails to open some areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins Tears of the Kingdom on its early 1.0 build, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it begins working properly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is programmed so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the adventure. But that's additionally how PointCrow gets around the durability problem, as the Link he transfers across universes is the version from the start of the game. It's a smart technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The stick is still a ineffective item that renders battles tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful number of items to improve his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that allows him to phase through the world. A few would consider these means grounds to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a penalty of kinds stating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

The streamer succeeds to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights look painful. The YouTube version of his journey spares the viewer sit through the whole conflicts, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular boss fight, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which erases Link's hearts as it progresses, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He can't always clone objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow manages to overcome the beast form of the antagonist. But the game compels the player to use the legendary weapon as the final strike, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a stick-only playthrough. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer removed over 1,000 people in his live stream. RIP.