Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have exhausted novel self-imposed challenges that apply special rules on a gameplay session. Yet, although many gamers have tried to finish the game with only a wooden stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, like the time he played the game solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the story with zero stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the Master Sword. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest tool in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's the end. Game over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The straightforward answer is glitches. The complete answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he advances normally, and the actual file, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the intro and initial tutorial island, and this Link gains full endurance and hearts. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the software to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third save file that combines the states of the first two files.

This causes fresh problems, however. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the file exploit fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain locations. As with other obstacles, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts the game on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the game midway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is coded so that he cannot damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets trapped at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability problem, as the character he transfers between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a smart trick, but not one that eradicates all possible friction. The stick is still a weak weapon that makes encounters onerous. But at that point, it's entirely a question of determination and perseverance. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to improve his attack, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally makes use of a bug that enables him to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods reason to question the legitimacy of the attempt, but in my mind, he's a inventive gamer who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his audience. He further uses a safeguard of kinds stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Last Showdown

PointCrow succeeds to get through many of the game's bosses, but the fights appear painful. The YouTube edit of his quest spares the audience sit through the whole conflicts, which is a good thing when a few of them last several long hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible 23 hours. The Ganondorf showdown, which depletes Link's health as it progresses, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible branch is still just a stick. He can't necessarily duplicate objects during the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the software compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so technically, it's not quite fully a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, PointCrow removed over a thousand users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.