Streaming Star Dedicates 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: 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 debuted, fans would have exhausted creative self-imposed challenges that impose unique rules on a gameplay session. Yet, while many players have attempted to finish the game using just a stick, streamer the streamer holds the record as the player who endeavored to beat the adventure with a single branch—meaning, the very same stick throughout.

The streamer is famous for these kinds of difficult playthroughs, such as the instance he went through the title using only bombs or the effort where he tried to beat the story with no stamina. A one-branch run, however, seems unfeasible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires Link to use the legendary blade. Then, there's the whole weapon wear mechanic, which is especially relevant when working with the most fragile weapon in the entire game. But if the branch shatters, that's the end. Game over.

The Method Behind the Madness

So, how? The straightforward explanation is exploits. The complete story, I kid you not, is parallel universes. Apparently, you can manipulate Tears of the Kingdom's saving mechanism to have distinct game sessions that affect one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he progresses normally, and the actual save, where he's limited. The setup file has him completing the prologue and first tutorial island, and this character gains maximum endurance and health. From this point, he starts a cinematic and pauses midway through to instruct the software to open an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets confused and creates a third save file that merges the states of the first two files.

This causes new issues, however. The merged save file has a Link that never acquired the capability to enter sacred places. Fortunately, this is an issue that the save glitch fixes readily, but executing it means depending on an buggy version of the game that refuses to open certain locations. As with everything else, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then updates the software partway through to make sure it begins functioning correctly.

Overcoming Weapon Wear and Other Challenges

Interestingly, the introductory version of Link is coded so that he is unable to damage any tools he wields, presumably to prevent a situation where the player gets stuck at the start of the game. But that's also how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls between dimensions is the version from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eliminates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak item that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's all a question of grit and dedication. It further aids that there's a duplication glitch that grants him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his attack, or stock up on revival fairies. He also employs a bug that enables Link to clip through the environment. Some would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the attempt, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do whatever it takes to entertain his audience. He further implements a penalty of sorts stipulating that, for every fairy he uses, he'll remove one viewer from his Twitch chat, creating an motivation to not depend too much on them.

Boss Fights and the Last Encounter

The streamer manages to defeat many of Tears of the Kingdom's bosses, but the battles appear painful. The video version of his quest doesn't make the viewer endure the entire conflicts, which is a blessing when some of them last several hours. One enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an incredible twenty-three straight. The final villain showdown, which depletes Link's health as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The indestructible stick is still only a stick. He is unable to necessarily clone objects during the battle.

Did he succeed? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of the antagonist. But the game forces the user to wield the Master Sword as the last attack, so strictly speaking, it's not completely a branch-exclusive run. But what fun is that?

In the end, the streamer banned more than 1,000 people in his live stream. Rest in peace.