Streaming Personality Spends 37 Hours Attempting to Beat <em>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, enthusiasts would have exhausted creative challenge runs that apply unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have tried to finish the game using just a wooden stick, content creator the streamer stands out as the player who aimed to beat the adventure with a single branch—specifically, the exact same stick from start to finish.

The streamer is renowned for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title solely with explosives or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with no energy. A one-branch run, however, seems impossible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the entire weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when working with the weakest weapon in the entire world. Yet if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

So, How?

So, how? The simple answer is exploits. The complete answer, believe it or not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that affect one another. So PointCrow creates a “setup” file where he progresses normally, and the real file, where he's restricted. The preparatory save has him going through the intro and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and creates a third game file that combines the states of the original two.

This creates new problems, though. The merged save file has a Link that never obtain the capability to access shrines. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes easily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to open certain areas. Like everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He begins the game on its early version 1.0, and then patches the software midway through to ensure it starts working properly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the prologue form of Link is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he uses, likely to avoid a scenario where the player gets trapped at the start of the game. But that's additionally how the streamer gets around the durability issue, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the one from the start of the story. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is still a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that point, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an plentiful supply of items to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that allows him to clip through the environment. A few would find these methods reason to question the validity of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive player who is ready to do whatever it takes to engage his viewer. He further implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he employs, he'll ban one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles look painful. The video version of his journey spares the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a blessing when a few of them take multiple hours. A particular enemy encounter, a powerful foe, requires an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's hearts as it progresses, is a notable tense moment. The unbreakable branch is after all just a piece of wood. He is unable to necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the legendary weapon as the last attack, so technically, it's not quite completely a stick-only playthrough. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, PointCrow banned over a thousand users in his live stream. RIP.