Streaming Star Spends 37 Straight Attempting to Conquer <em>Tears of the Kingdom</em> With Only a One Branch

One could think that after two years since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted, fans would have run out of novel challenge runs that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. However, while many gamers have tried to finish Tears of the Kingdom with just a stick, streamer PointCrow holds the record as the individual who endeavored to clear the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the exact same one from start to finish.

PointCrow is famous for these kinds of challenge runs, such as the instance he played the game using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with zero energy. A one-branch playthrough, though, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the entire durability system, which is especially relevant when dealing with the weakest weapon in the whole game. But if the stick shatters, that's it. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The simple explanation is exploits. The full answer, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that impact one another. So PointCrow does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first starting area, and this Link gains maximum stamina and health. From here, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to tell the game to open an auto-save from the branch-only file. The system gets confused and generates a new save file that merges the states of the first two files.

That creates new problems, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never acquired the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is an issue that the save glitch addresses easily, but executing it means depending on an unstable build of the game that refuses to load some areas. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He begins the game on its pre-release 1.0 build, and then updates the software midway through to ensure it begins functioning correctly.

Bypassing Durability and Other Hurdles

Curiously, the introductory form of Link is programmed so that he cannot break any tools he uses, likely to prevent a situation where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's also how the streamer bypasses the wear problem, as the character he transfers across universes is the one from the beginning of the story. It's a clever trick, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The stick is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters onerous. But at that point, it's all a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of items to boost his strength, or accumulate on healing spirits. He also employs 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 to my view, he's a resourceful gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his viewer. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he uses, he'll ban one viewer from his live stream, creating an incentive to not depend too much on them.

Major Battles and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through many of Tears of the Kingdom's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video edit of his quest doesn't make the viewer sit through the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. A particular boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an incredible twenty-three hours. The final villain battle, which depletes the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a memorable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is after all just a stick. He can't necessarily clone objects midway the battle.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, PointCrow does overcome the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to wield the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not completely a stick-only run. But where's the challenge in that?

In the end, the streamer removed more than a thousand users in his Twitch chat. RIP.