Streaming Star Spends 37 Hours Trying to Conquer <em>The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom</em> Using a Single Branch

You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom arrived, fans would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that impose unique restrictions on a gameplay session. However, although many gamers have tried to finish the game using only a wooden stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the player who aimed to beat the game with a single branch—specifically, the very same one throughout.

PointCrow is famous for such challenge runs, such as the time he played the title using only bombs or the attempt where he aimed to defeat the game with no stamina. A one-branch run, though, sounds unfeasible at first glance. There's the game's introduction, which forces the hero to wield the Master Sword. Then, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is particularly relevant when dealing with the most fragile tool in the entire world. But if the branch shatters, that's it. It's over.

So, How?

How did he do it? The simple explanation is exploits. The full story, I kid you not, is alternate dimensions. It turns out, you can tweak Tears of the Kingdom's save file system to have separate playthroughs that impact one another. So the creator does a “preparation” save where he advances standardly, and the real file, where he's limited. The setup file has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this Link gains full stamina and health. From here, he starts a cutscene and pauses partway through to instruct the game to open an auto-save from the stick file. The system gets confused and creates a third save file that merges the conditions of the first two files.

This causes fresh issues, though. The fused save file has a protagonist that never obtain the capability to enter shrines. Fortunately, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means relying on an buggy build of the game that fails to open certain areas. As with everything else, he has a clever workaround for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to make sure it starts working properly.

Overcoming Durability and Other Hurdles

Interestingly, the prologue version of the hero is coded so that he cannot break any weapons he wields, presumably to prevent a scenario where the user gets stuck at the beginning of the adventure. But that's additionally how the streamer bypasses the durability issue, as the Link he transfers across dimensions is the version from the start of the story. It's a clever trick, but not a method that eradicates all potential friction. The branch is nonetheless a ineffective item that makes encounters onerous. But at that stage, it's all a question of determination and dedication. It further helps that there's a copying exploit that grants him an abundant number of items to boost his attack, or stock up on healing spirits. He also employs a glitch that enables Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these means reason to discredit the legitimacy of the run, but to my view, he's a inventive gamer who is willing to do anything necessary to entertain his audience. He also implements a safeguard of sorts stipulating that, for each spirit he uses, he'll remove a fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid overly rely on them.

Boss Fights and the Final Encounter

PointCrow manages to get through several of the game's main enemies, but the fights appear grueling. The video version of his quest spares the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when some of them take several hours. A particular enemy encounter, Queen Gibdo, takes an astonishing 23 hours. The final villain showdown, which depletes the hero's health as it progresses, is a memorable tense moment. The indestructible stick is after all only a stick. He is unable to always duplicate items midway the fight.

So, is it possible? In a matter of speaking, he manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the software forces the user to wield the legendary weapon as the final attack, so strictly speaking, it's not fully a branch-exclusive run. But where's the challenge in that?

When everything is said and done, PointCrow removed more than 1,000 users in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.